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THE WONDERFUL 
STORY OF WASHINGTON 



Inspiration Series of Patriotic Americans 

THE 

WONDERFUL STORY 

OF WASHINGTON 



AND THE MEANING OF HIS LIFE 
FOR THE YOUTH AND PAT- 
RIOTISM OF AMERICA 



By C. M. STEVENS 
Author of "The Wonderful Story of Lincoln' 



NEW YORK 
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY 



£5* 



Copyright, 1917, by 
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY 



hi 

OCT 29 1917 



©"CU477278 
"Wo { . 




"The ingenuous youth of America will hold up to themselves 
the bright model of Washington's example, and study to be what 
they behold ; they will contemplate his character, till all his virtues 
spread out and display themselves to their delighted vision ; as the 
earliest astronomers, the shepherds on the plains of Babylon, gazed 
at the stars till they saw them form into clusters and constellations, 
overpowering at length the eyes of the beholders with the united 
blaze ot a thousand lights." — Webster. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Introductory Considerations 1 

American Patriotism and the Meaning of America. 
Washington's Early Surroundings. 

II. The Boy with a Will and a Way 6 

Early Circumstances of the First American Hero. 
A Community Proud of Its Family Honor. 
The Self-Pity and Sentimentalism of Youth. 

III. Beginnings of Experience in Border Warfare 16 

Getting Used to Roughing It. 

Land Speculation as the Beginning Leading to 

American Self-Government. 
The Struggle for the Indian's Hunting Grounds." 

IV. The Rivalry and Diplomacy of the Frontier . 26 

The First Great Problems of the Indians. 
Alarm for the Future. 
Indifference to Great Interests. 

V. The Consequence of Arrogance and Ignorance 35 

Annoyances and Antagonisms. 

Dishonors and Disasters. 

Washington Entering the School of War. 

VI. The Struggle for Fort Duquesne ..... 46 
The Separation Beginning Between the Colonies and 

England. 
Lessons Gathered from Defeat. 
Some Personal Interests at Home. 

VII. The Fate of the Ohio Valley 57 

Frontier Fears and Panics. 

Political Intrigue and Official Confusion. 

"A Matter of Great Admiration." 

VEIL The Beginning Signs of a Great Revolution . 66 

Military Victory and a Happy Marriage. 

Life Fulfilled as a Virginia Country Gentleman. 

The Momentous Struggle Between Might and Right. 



/ 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

IX. Sowing the Wind and Keaping the Whirlwind 77 

Mount Vernon at First in a Zone of Calm. 
Giving the Appearance and Keeping the Substance. 
"Soft Words Butter No Parsnips." 

X. Antagonisms and Hostilities 90 

Blazing the Way to War. 

The Double-Quick March to Revolution. 

Violence and Flattery as Methods of Mastery. 

XI. Great Minds in the Great Storm 100 

Suppressing Americans. 

The Business of Getting Ready. 

Many Men of Many Minds. 

XII. The House Long Divided Against Itself . . Ill 

Unpatriotic Confusion of Opinions and Interests. 

Sometimes Too Late to Mend. 

Selecting the Leader of Liberty for America. 

XIII. Large Bodies Move Slowly 126 

The First Commander-in-Chief. 

Big Business, Money-Makers and Patriotism. 

The Strong Mind for Great Needs. 

XIV. Turning Revolution into Government .... 136 

Seeking Retirement for Life. 

Freedom and the Wrangle for Personal Gain. 

Laying the Foundations of Liberty and Law. 

XV. The Peace of Home at Last 150 

Sorrow for the Departed Scenes. 

Crowned in the Fullness of Time. 

A Life-Like Scene from Washington's Home Life. 

XVI. Standards of American Patriotism 163 

Foundations. 

Freedom of the Western Hemisphere. 

The Loyalty of Youth. 

XVII. Concluding Reflections 176 

The Washington Ideal as the American Ideal. 
Not Birth But Character Makes Americans. 
The American Lesson Learned from the Greatest 
Leaders in the Making of America. 



\ 



s 



WASHINGTON 

AND AMERICAN LIBERTY 



CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS 

I. AMERICAN PATRIOTISM AND THE MEANING OF 

AMERICA 

"America for Americans" is a patriotic appeal 
that has arisen in many a political crisis, and then 
gone to pieces in the confusions of what we mean by 
"Americans' ' and "America." American Liberty 
has been a goddess of worship from the beginning, 
and yet we find ourselves in an endless turmoil con- 
cerning what we mean by "American liberty." 

Washington and his associate patriots wrote a 
great definition in history and established that defi- 
nition in the Declaration of Independence and the 
Constitution of the United States, but human mean- 
ing, like the skies, seems hard to get clear and to keep 
clear. To know clearly what the definition of free- 



2 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

dom means and to promote it in the right-minded 
way, is the patriotism that identifies anyone any- 
where as being American. The makers of America 
loved the right-minded way, and their primary test 
of justice unfailingly required, as a basis, the per- 
sonal liberty that has been described to us by all as 
freedom to do the right that wrongs no one. To these 
" rights of man/' they gave "the last full measure of 
devotion," as Lincoln defined patriotism, for "the 
birth of a new freedom under God." 

The public-school youth, who is not in one way or 
another familiar with the Americanism of Washing- 
ton and Lincoln, is not yet prepared either for col- 
lege or for life, and, still more clearly, is not prepared 
to be an American. The number of un- Americans in 
America may, in some crisis, become appalling, if, in 
fact, they do not succeed in Europeanizing America. 
Against that possibility there is nothing to save us, 
if we do not save ourselves as our hereditary task of 
American patriotism. 

Washington and Lincoln are the two incomparable 
constructive ideals of American liberty and man- 
hood. The two lives together complete the meaning 
of America. Washington began his life with a super- 
abundance of everything aristocratic in his age. Lin- 
coln began his life in worldly nothingness that had 
indeed nothing for him but the democratic wilder- 




o 

be 



O 

o 
O 



INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS 3 

ness till lie became a man. And yet both became the 
same great soul in the same great cause, the maker 
and preserver of American civilization, as the moral 
law of man and God. 

American life and its ideal humanity cannot be 
understood by American youth until the wonderful 
character and struggle of these two supremely typi- 
cal Americans are understood as the expression of 
the meaning of America, and even no less as a mean- 
ing for the world. 

The Great Teacher said, " Greater love hath no 
man than this, that he will lay down his life for a 
friend,' ' and no man on earth has a greater friend 
than the America of Washington and Lincoln. 



ii. Washington's early surroundings 

We cannot think with a true vision, in estimating 
the meaning of colonial and revolutionary days, if we 
allow the glamor of fame and the idolatry of colonial 
patriotism to obscure our view of those times. There 
were heroes immortal with what we know as "the 
spirit of '76," but, grading from them were the good, 
bad and indifferent, that often seemed overwhelm- 
ing in numbers. 



4 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

George Washington is known chiefly through the 
rather stilted style of writing that then prevailed, 
and the puritanic expressions that were used in de- 
scribing commendable conduct. Even Washington's 
writings were edited so as not to offend sensitive ears, 
and so as not to give an impression to the reader dif- 
ferent from the idealized orthodox character of thai 
severe pioneer civilization. The people w T ere free in 
everything but social expression. That was sternly 
required to conform to a rigid puritanic or cavaliei 
standard. 

Washington, more than any other great man, seems 
to have composed his early life from what some well- 
meaning reformers have termed " copy-book moral- 
ity ; ' ' that is, proverbial morality or personal rules of 
conduct. Washington in his boyhood wrote out many 
moral sentences as reminders for his ow x n guidance. 
He was a persistent searcher after the right way to- 
ward the right life. 

Washington's mother is described as being stern 
in business and moral discipline, even as having a 
violent temper and being capable of very severe meas- 
ures to accomplish needed results. It seems that 
Washington, seeing this method in both father and 
mother, reinforced, as it were, by the military bear- 
ing of his much-admired elder half-brother, took that 
form of life as his earliest ideal. He was as tireless 



INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS 5 

in perfecting models of business and life as Lincoln 
was in mastering the unconventional meaning of 
human beings. Washington at the ages of eleven and 
twelve delighted to copy various book-keeping forms 
and mercantile documents. His school books at that 
age are still preserved and they are models of ac- 
curacy and neatness. Besides that, he loved to dis- 
cipline himself. He was always subjecting himself, 
either mentally or physically, to some kind of orderly 
training. 

For one who was destined to have such a leading 
part in framing a new nation for a new world, such 
a making of mind seems to have been just the thing 
for that great task. 

He enjoyed a great local reputation as the boy who 
could ride any horse in that county, and who could 
throw a stone across the Rappahannock. He was a 
leader in every group of boys to which he came. He 
drilled them in military parades and umpired them 
in their disputes and games. Students of the mind- 
making process have much to consider in the com- 
parison and analogy of a boy being first military 
chieftain to his playmates, and then step by step, the 
legislator, judge and chief executive in their politi- 
cal affairs, with the generalship of a revolution for 
national independence, and the statesmanship of a 
new empire built in the cause of humanity. 



CHAPTER II 
THE BOY WITH A WILL AND A WAY 

I. EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE FIRST AMERICAN HERO 

1732 

George Washington has his place in American 
history, not only as being the great commander-in- 
chief of the American revolutionary army, but as 
being no less influential and powerful as a political 
leader and constructive American statesman. He 
was born February 22, 1732, in one of the wealthiest 
and most cultured homes in America. From the 
front door of his father's house, on the estate that 
was a few years later named Mount Vernon, could 
be seen many miles of the Potomac River, and a wide 
sweep of the shores of Maryland. All that can enter 
into making life delightful flourished abundantly 
about the cradle of this child, and contributed toward 
his preparation and development for leadership, that 
was to produce a new power in the cause of human 
freedom for the world. There are easily seen manv 
contributing interests that seemed to be carefully en- 
gaged in fitting him for the consequential task of 

6 



THE BOY WITH A WILL AND A WAY 7 

taking the divine right from kings and giving it back 
to the people who alone have the right to the freedom 
of the earth. 

Very soon after the birth of this child, the family 
moved to an estate owned by the father on the shores 
of the Rappahannock, across from Fredericksburg. 

All traditions agree that the boy's father was ex- 
ceedingly careful that his son should have his mind 
built up in the most gentlemanly honesty. 

Somehow, as we trace the early lives of great men, 
that word honesty is always intruding as of first im- 
portance. In an age when so many men seem to ar- 
rive at riches and power through intrigue and the 
unscrupulous manipulation of means, the word hon- 
esty loses significance and is looked upon either as 
hypocrisy or a joke. And yet, such conditions fail 
and the success does not succeed. 

George Washington was fortunate in his childhood 
protectors. Besides having his father and mother to 
take watchful care of his right views of life, there 
was Lawrence, fourteen years older than George. 
Lawrence Washington was a son of their father's 
earlier marriage. He had been sent away to Eng- 
land to be educated and he returned when George 
was eight years old. He has been described as a 
handsome, splendid, gentlemanly young man. He 
dearly loved George and did all he could to give the 



8 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

boy his honorable ideas of social and political life. 

In the midst of this fraternal interest, at the most 
impressionable age of a child, came a great military 
excitement. War for the possession of the West 
Indies was on between Great Britain and Spain. Ad- 
miral Vernon had captured Porto Bello on the Isth- 
mus of Darien, and the Spaniards, aided by the 
French, were preparing to drive the English out. A 
regiment was to be raised in the Colonies and Law- 
rence Washington was eager to become a soldier. 
Such was his father's position in Colonial affairs that 
Lawrence was given a Captain's commission and he 
sailed away in 1740. 

The sound of fife and drum, with Lawrence's en- 
listment, doubtless excited the martial spirit in 
George, as is confirmed by many an anecdote, and 
started him on the way to that knowledge and train- 
ing which fitted him to become the head of the revolu- 
tionary army. 

Augustus Washington, George's father, died sud- 
denly in 1743, at the age of forty-nine. He was 
estimated to have been at his death the wealthiest 
man in Virginia. At least he was able to leave an 
inheritance to each of his seven children, so that they 
were each regarded as among the most extensive 
property owners of that prosperous colony. 

Lawrence inherited the estate on the Potomac, 



THE BOY WITH A WILL AND A WAY 9 

which he named Mount Vernon, in honor of his com- 
mander in the war with the Spaniards. 

George was eleven years old when his father died, 
and he, with the other four minor children, were left 
with their property to the guardianship of their 
mother. 

She was indeed the great mother of a great man. 
Her management morally and financially was con- 
scientious, exact and admirable. George, being her 
eldest child, was always her favorite, but, with scrup- 
ulous care she served each as needed and with the un- 
stinted affection of a noble mother. 



II. A COMMUNITY PROUD OF ITS FAMILY HONOR 

Lawrence Washington showed in many ways that 
he dearly loved his reliable, busy little half-brother. 
George spent much of his time at Mount Vernon. 
Lawrence had become quite an important man in the 
public estimation. He had what might well be called 
a princely estate, which he upheld in princely style, 
without offence to any one, and with the admiration 
of all the people. 

Next to him, on the picturesque Potomac ridge, 
lived his father-in-law on the beautiful estate named 



10 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

Belvoir. This very honorable and high-minded gen- 
tleman was of an old aristocratic English family, and 
he was the manager of the extensive estates in Vir- 
ginia of his cousin, Lord Fairfax. 

George Washington grew up in these severely aris- 
tocratic associations, in which the gentility had no 
snobbery and the class distinction nothing offensive 
beyond the requirements of merit, culture and the 
manners of genuine gentlemen. Doubtless in ad- 
miration for the neatness, cleanliness, harmony and 
scrupulous morality of these beautiful homes, he was 
inspired to draw up his famous code known as 
" Rules for Behavior in Company and Conversa- 
tion.' ' We can easily imagine that the visitors he 
met at Mount Vernon and Belvoir were the very well- 
bred ladies and chivalrous gentleman of a courtly 
English period, among whom were mingled numer- 
ous heroic captains from the West Indies, whose 
chief topics of conversation were thrilling descrip- 
tions and stories of Pirates and Spaniards. Perhaps 
he was then receiving a vision of international af- 
fairs, from a world view, that was important to his 
mission in civilization, even as Lincoln learned his 
country's welfare in his struggle upward among the 
backwoods commoners of his times. 

That George was greatly influenced by the war- 
ship heroes he met is shown by his eagerness to join 



THE BOY WITH A WILL AND A WAY 11 

the navy. Everybody seemed to think this was the 
thing for him except his mother. Even her firm de- 
cisions were at last overcome, a midshipman's place 
was obtained for him and his personal effects were 
sent aboard the man-of-war, but the mother could 
not say good-bye to her eldest son. She couldn't give 
him up and she didn't. It is hardly likely that the 
world, a hundred years later, could have known that 
there ever was such a person as George Washington, 
if his mother had not changed her mind and kept 
him from the boisterous turmoil of the uncertain sea. 
However that may be, he was sent to school instead of 
making a cruise in the West Indies. His study was 
mathematics and military tactics, the very thing most 
needed in the sublime undertaking that was to make 
his name immortal. 

Strange to say, he was known as a very bashful 
boy. In fact, all through his life he was embarrassed 
in the presence of ladies. A girl of his own age, who 
saw much of him when he was a boy, wrote in later 
life, that "he was a very bashful young man." She 
says, "I used often to wish that he would talk more." 

That his emotional feelings were very early de- 
veloped is quite certain from his own diary written 
at that time. He wrote, with the usual foolishness of 
a boy, about some unnamed girl with whom he was 
madly in love. He was for a long time exceedingly 



12 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

unhappy. Even his well-disciplined mind and his 
severe regulation of conduct were no proof against 
the turmoil of unreturned affection. We have never 
known anything about this beautiful lodestone that 
had drawn the heart out of him. He never described 
her or told who she was. It was probably merely a 
fancy ideal with which he clothed some one utterly 
impossible as a real friend or mate to him. Such 
queer freaks of interest have often happened to the 
emotions of a growing mind, and later, the victim 
wondered what was possible in the object to cause 
such feelings. In all likelihood, there was nothing in 
the object that should have caused anything more 
than a just admiration or respect. But instead, the 
feelings caught on fire and had to burn out. So it 
was with Washington. As he was loyal to his ideals, 
even when they were merely fancy, foolishly wrapped 
about some inappropriate object, he remained de- 
voted to his grief until years wore out the memory. 



III. THE SELF-PITY AND SENTIMENTALISM OF YOUTH 

Those who like their hero to be of chiseled marble 
may be shocked to think that George Washington, 
"the father of his Country,' ' wrote pages in his 



THE BOY WITH A WILL AND A WAY 13 

journal of foolish love-sighs and more foolish poetry. 
He often bewailed his "poor restless heart, wounded 
by Cupid's dart/' and wrote of this wounded heart as 
"bleeding for one who remains pitiless to my griefs 
and woes." That he never had a confident to whom 
he could tell his sacred heart-burnings is indicated by 
the lines : 

"Ah, woe is me, that I should love and conceal, 
Long have I wished and never dared reveal." 

But such experiences let George Washington come 
a little closer to us as a real boy, and is consolation 
for many a man who had a like foolish spell in his 
youth. 

George not only kept a tell-tale diary, which has 
given us all we know of his inner life in youth, but 
he wrote letters in that journal to many persons. 
Whether those letters were imaginary or were actu- 
ally copies of real letters we do not know. Some of 
these were written while visiting the Fairfax family 
of Belvoir, after Lord Fairfax had come there from' 
England as the head of the family interests. He 
wrote to his "dear friend Robin": "My residence is 
at present at his lordship's, where I might, was my 
heart disengaged, pass my time very pleasantly, as 
there's a very agreeable young lady lives in the same 



14 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

house; but, as that's only adding fuel to the fire, it 
makes me the more uneasy, for, by often and unavoid- 
ably being in company with her, revives my former 
passion for your Lowland Beauty; whereas, was I 
to live more retired from young women, I might in 
some measure alleviate my sorrows by burying that 
chaste and troublesome passion in the grave of ob- 
livion." 

The " lowland beauty" he refers to is said to have 
been Miss Grimes, of Westmoreland, who, as Mrs. 
Lee, became the mother of General Henry Lee, fam- 
ous in revolutionary times as Light Horse Harry, 
and always a favorite with General Washington. 

Lord Fairfax, to whom he often refers, had a 
strong influence on his life. This real nobleman had 
inherited through his mother the Virginia lands 
granted to Lord Culpepper by Charles II. Having 
been jilted at the altar, in the very height of a rather 
famous career, by a lady who had a chance to marry 
a duke, Lord Fairfax renounced society and left Eng- 
land for Virginia. He took a great liking to young 
George Washington and they became companions on 
many a fox-hunt. 

Presently it became necessary for Lord Fairfax 
to have his lands surveyed, and Washington, having 
studied surveying, was chosen for this task. The 
boy, though now man's size, was not yet seventeen 



THE BOY WITH A WILL AND A WAY 15 

t 

when he undertook this very responsible work. But 
here his careful training served him well. Nothing 
was ever undertaken by him until it had been thor- 
oughly thought out, and success was thus assured in 
this his first man-making task. He still kept his 
journal day by day, but it was now full of the busi- 
ness of life. The emotional dreams of his Lowland 
Beauty are recorded no more. 

This escape from self-pity and individual senti- 
mentalism is in line with Edison's advice to get busy 
at something useful if you would avoid temptation 
and foolishness. Even one so sternly set as Washing- 
ton needed to have his attention occupied with some- 
thing to do, as employment for idle hands, in order 
to be free from devil-ideas sowing artificial interests 
in the growing mind. 



CHAPTER III 

THE BEGINNINGS OF EXPERIENCE IN 
BORDER WARFARE 



I. GETTING USED TO ROUGHING IT 

From the aristocratic tables and home comforts of 
Mount Vernon and Belvoir, the youthful Washing- 
ton began roughing it in the forests and along the 
streams of the Shenandoah. He had begun to adapt 
himself to the primitive conditions of his country and 
to share the coarse fare of the commoners that com- 
posed the civilization of the new world. 

To one of his friends, he wrote: "I have not slept 
more than three or four nights in a bed, but, after 
walking a good deal all day, I have lain down before 
the fire upon a little straw or fodder, or a bearskin, 
whichever was to be had, with man, wife and chil- 
dren, like dogs and cats ; and happy is he who gets the 
berth nearest the fire." 

16 



THE BEGINNINGS OF EXPERIENCE 17 

He wrote in his note-book that he received, when in 
active service, a doubloon per day, which was $7.20 
in gold and worth much more than that correspond- 
ingly at that time. These first wages are in sharp 
contrast to those received by Lincoln, and the prepa- 
ration for life coming to the two men was as notably 
different as their mission and as their times. 

Soon after this, Washington, though only a boy, 
was appointed official surveyor for the government, 
and so accurate were his surveys that they have ever 
remained the undisputed authority. Meantime, he 
had an eye to the practical, and, as a result, the choic- 
est parts of the Shenandoah Valley came into pos- 
session of the Washingtons and remained with them 
for many generations. 

The able and talented young gentleman was fre- 
quently for long periods the guest of Lord Fairfax, 
after Lord Fairfax had moved from Belvoir to his 
" quarters" beyond the Blue Ridge, which he had 
made into a spacious new home named Greenway 
Court. All the culture of England was gathered 
there and nothing was failing to give the young man 
a clear idea of the social and political conditions of 
the world. 

World history has much to do in making individual 
history and so it was with Washington. England 
and France were rivals and at war. The war came 



18 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

to a close, and, so anxious was each for peace, that 
they settled their home differences and left to the 
future their rivalry for territory in North America. 
It then became a race for them, who could occupy and 
defend territory the most rapidly. The vast over- 
lapping claims ran down from the Saint Lawrence 
River to the Ohio River and on to the Mississippi. 

French explorers had certainly been the first to 
pass through that region and map out the territory, 
but the English had occupied the eastern coast and 
given land titles that ran west to the setting sun. 
Evidently, the mother countries had settled their dif- 
ferences in Europe only to turn their energies to 
securing and fortifying their claims in the new world. 

Strange indeed is the course of destiny. The revo- 
lutionary grandmothers used to recite a very vague 
stanza which ran as follows : 

"A lion and a unicorn 

Were fighting for the crown 
Up jumped a little dog 

And knocked them both down." 

At least, England lost most of its possessions in 
North America, France lost all, and a little nation 
appeared that was the cradle of liberty for mankind 
and the unsurpassable maker of a greater world. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF EXPERIENCE 19 



II. LAND SPECULATION AS THE BEGINNING LEADING TO 
AMERICAN SELF-GOVERNMENT 

We may reasonably find a beginning of the Ameri- 
can republic, involving the career of George Wash- 
ington, in the formation of what is known as the Ohio 
Company. If this company had been formed of un- 
scrupulous speculators, as were other big franchises 
granted by kings, it could well have been a near-rela- 
tive to the get-rich-quick manias that present so queer 
a view of men's minds, not only in those days but 
even in present times. But such honorable men as 
Lawrence and Augustine Washington were promi- 
nent in that company, and it was not long till Law- 
rence had chief management of the company. 

A very significant controversy concerning freedom 
of conscience arose in the endeavor to induce the 
Dutch from Pennsylvania to settle on the new land 
grants. These Pennsylvanians were what is known 
as dissenters. They had a religious belief of their 
own. If they moved into the territory of the Ohio 
Company they would have to attend Episcopalian 
service and contribute taxes to the support of the 
Church of England. 

Lawrence Washington was opposed to the English 



20 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

laws that demanded such sectarian contribution of 
means and life. 

"It has ever been my opinion," he argued, "and I 
hope it will ever be, that restraints on conscience are 
cruel in regard to those on whom they are imposed, 
and injurious to the country imposing them. . . . 
Virginia was greatly settled in the latter part of 
Charles the First's time, and during the usurpation, 
by the zealous churchmen ; and that spirit, which was 
then brought in, has ever since continued; so that, 
except a few Quakers, we have no dissenters. But 
what has been the consequence ? We have increased 
by slow degrees, whilst our neighboring colonies, 
whose natural advantages are greatly inferior to 
ours, have become populous." 

This view may look as if it had been taken from the 
old saying that nothing succeeds like success, and yet 
this may, in the long run, be the necessary proof 
found in a thing being true as it works. In any event, 
the Washington idea was that of individual freedom, 
and this w T as the first essential in a mind that was to 
have such a large share in founding the government 
of America. 

The romantic contest was now on for the possession 
of the great region of the Ohio and its tributaries. 
It was a vast wilderness of pathless forests, rich in 
the wild game that was then the fortune of new- world 



THE BEGINNINGS OF EXPERIENCE 21 



traders. The friendship of the Indians was of the 
highest importance to both sides. Every effort was 
made by both French and English to form alliances 
with the Indians. The French addressed themselves 
in all their meetings as "Fathers" to the Indians, 
while the English always used the term "Brothers." 
It was clear to all that if the "Fathers" won the al- 
legiance of the Indians, the "Brothers" would have 
to go, or likewise "t'other way 'round." 

While Mr. Gist, the surveyor of the Ohio Company, 
was finding the boundaries of their territory, he was 
met by an old Delaware Sachem who asked him a 
very embarrassing question. 

"The French," said the old Indian chief, "claim 
all the land on one side of the Ohio, and the English 
claim all the land on the other side, now where does 
the Indian's land lie ?" 

The question was answered at last by time. The 
French "Fathers" and the English "Brothers" took 
it all, after which the new government of the United 
States came into possession, and the orator and the 
poet could fittingly say of the Indians, "Slowly and 
sadly they climb the distant mountains and read their 
doom in the setting sun." 

But American responsibility, if not its humanity, 
at last settled "The Indian Question," and the "good 
Indian" became a new American. 



22 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

III. THE STRUGGLE OF NATIONS FOR THE INDIAN'S 
HUNTING GROUNDS 

The wild struggle between the French and English 
that now took place in the wilderness, for the pos- 
session of the Indian's hunting ground could hardly 
be dignified enough to be called war, and the holiness 
of its cause could hardly be raised higher than rival 
commercial interests working for something in which 
neither had any clear claims. But it had a most mo- 
mentous consequence on whether America should be 
French and Spanish or English and Spanish. In 
those dark forests where the dusky savages held the 
balance of power, to make the " Fathers" or the 
" Brothers" successful, was played the tragic scenes 
deciding the political destiny of the new world. 

The French began to build forts and supply sta- 
tions along their northern lines from Canada, and 
the English began to drill volunteers for the purpose 
of defending the Ohio Company's territory, if not 
even further to expel the French entirely as a menace 
to the peace of the company. 

Virginia was divided into military districts whose 
commander-in-chief was an adjutant-general, having 
the rank of major. Lawrence Washington secured 
one of these military districts for his brother George, 



THE BEGINNINGS O F EXPERIE NCE 23 

who was then only nineteen years of age. Manhood of 
mind as well as of body had come to him rapidly and 
there is no evidence but that he fulfilled these high 
duties with complete satisfaction to all concerned. 
To American interests, these experiences were indeed 
a providential training for the priceless responsibili- 
ties to come. 

Method, accuracy and persistence were prime 
characteristics of George Washington. He did not 
assume to know it all without any need of prepara- 
tion. He believed he could take a job for which he 
was not fitted with the profound belief that before 
the job got to him he would be fitted. This reminds 
us of how Lincoln took the job of surveyor before 
he knew how to survey, but when he began the work 
of surveying, even with the rudest instruments, his 
work was correct. 

There was a Westmoreland volunteer, Adjutant 
Muse, who had served through the Spanish Cam- 
paigns with Lawrence Washington. He was well in- 
formed by both experience and study in the art and 
theory of war. George brought him to Mount Ver- 
non and became under him a strenuous student in 
military tactics. There was also Jacob Van Braam, 
a soldier of fortune, who was an expert in fencing, 
and who had likewise been through the West Indies 
with Lawrence. Jacob was speedily added to the 



24 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

military academy at Mount Vernon with its one stu- 
dent. But these teachers might well feel like Plato 
at the Academy in Athens. The story is that a stormy 
day had kept all of Plato's pupils away but one. 
[Nevertheless, Plato arose and began his lecture as 
usual. The pupil protested but Plato continued, say- 
ing, "It is true that only one pupil is here, but that 
one is Aristotle.' ' 

Adjutant Muse and Swordmaster Van Braam had 
only one pupil for their distinguished instruction, but 
that one was George Washington. 

It was probably about the time when George had 
learned all he needed of these teachers, that Law- 
rence's health broke down, and his physicians or- 
dered him to go to the Barbadoes for the winter. It 
was necessary for George to go with him, and he did 
so, writing a journal of all the occurrences and obser- 
vations he considered worthy of note. 

Within two weeks, after he arrived in that happy- 
go-lucky colony where no one was interested in any- 
thing but pleasure and pastime, George was struck 
down by the smallpox. He recovered in three weeks 
and was slightly marked for life, but with no other 
consequence than a disagreeable experience. 

Lawrence decided to leave the Barbadoes for Ber- 
muda, and so he sent George home to bring Mrs. 
Washington to Bermuda. But she did not go. Law- 



THE BEGINNINGS OF EXPERIENCE 25 

rence returned, and died soon after, at the age of 
thirty- four years. 

This noble man and genuine American did much 
toward preparing his half-brother George for the 
immortal work to be done, and the name of Lawrence 
Washington should ever remain sacred in the mem- 
ory of the American people. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE RIVALRY AND DIPLOMACY OF THE 
FRONTIER 



I. THE FIRST GREAT PROBLEMS OF THE INDIANS 

From small events in the deep wilderness, human 
interests were forming into the flow of incalculable 
affairs. The Ohio Indians had gathered in council 
with their English brethren at Logstown, and entered 
into a treaty not to molest any English settlers in the 
territory claimed by the Ohio Company. The Six 
Nations of Iroquois to the northeast had very haught- 
ily declined to attend the conference. This was be- 
cause they were nearer the French and under their 
influence. 

"It is not our custom," said an Iroquois chief, "to 
meet to treat of affairs in the woods and weeds. If 
the Governor of Virginia wants t3 speak with us, we 
will meet him at Albany, where w e expect the Gover- 
nor of New York to be present.' ' 

26 



RIVALRY AND DIPLOMACY 27 

On the other side, the Ohio Indians sent a protest 
to the French at Lake Erie. 

" Fathers," said the messenger, "you are the dis- 
turbers of this land by building towns, and taking the 
country from us by fraud and force. If you had 
come in a peaceable manner, like our brothers, the 
English, we should have traded with you as we do 
with them ; but that you should come and build houses 
on our land, and take it by force, is what we cannot 
submit to. Our brothers, the English, have heard 
this, and I now come to tell it to you, for I am not 
afraid to order you off this land." 

"Child," was the reply of the French commander, 
"you talk foolishly. I am not afraid of flies and mos- 
quitoes, for such are those who oppose me. Take 
back your wampum. I fling it at you. ' ' 

It became evident that the French intended to con- 
nect Canada with Louisiana by a chain of forts and 
so confine the English to the coast east of the Alle- 
ghanies. This meant the ruin of the Ohio Company. 
A strong appeal was made to Governor Dinwiddie 
of Virginia. He was a stockholder in the Ohio Com- 
pany and was accordingly a ready listener to the 
danger of losing the Ohio country. 

Governor Dinwiddie sent a commissioner with a 
protest to the French, who were rapidly breaking 
their way through from Canada, defeating the hostile 



28 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

Indians, and breaking to pieces their confidence in 
their English brothers. Captain Trent was the man 
selected for this dangerous and delicate task. He 
went to Logstown and then on into the Indian coun- 
try, where the French had scattered the Indians and 
established their authority. 

Trent could not see anything to do and he returned 
home a failure. This made matters worse, and re- 
quired a still stronger man, able to restore the lost 
confidence of the Indians and to impress the French 
with the determination and power of the English. 
There was only one man who seemed qualified for 
such a hazardous undertaking, and he was only 
twenty-two years of age. This was George Wash- 
ington. 

He was appointed to the dangerous mission and 
given full instructions in writing. With the required 
equipment, Washington set forth on the remarkable 
journey, which was the beginning of his great career 
as the maker of a nation. The record of this great 
adventure belongs to history and little can be done 
toward telling any part of it without telling enough 
to make a book. The journey contained all the perils 
of such a wilderness, the usual intrigues characteris- 
tic of the times in the dealing with the Indians, and 
the customary experience of frontier diplomacy be- 
tween two rival colonies, of which the mother coun- 



RIVALRY AND DIPLOMACY 29 

tries were at peace. But with a thoroughness that 
was possible only to one who had made thoroughness 
an object and a habit of his life, Washington noted 
everything he saw among the tribes, at the French 
outposts, and at the French headquarters. 

Washington had started with his message from 
Governor Dinwiddie on October 30, and he returned 
with the reply, January 16. The long journey 
through the trackless forests of the winter wilderness 
had been one of almost incredible hardship and peril, 
where his life many times appeared hopeless, but he 
won out and performed his mission. It is probable 
that nothing throughout his wonderful career was 
more trying to his character or more evidence of his 
indomitable manhood. One who was able to perform 
successfully such a mission, and bring back such a 
clear view of the situation, was henceforth to be rated 
as one of the worthiest sons of Virginia, and a re- 
liable guardian of her fortunes. 



II. AT, ARM FOR THE FUTURE 

Washington's journal, covering his journey and 
his observations, was printed, and it awakened the 
colonies to the fact that, if the French took possession 



30 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

of the Ohio Valley, the English would have no future 
beyond the Alleghenies. The French commander's 
evasive reply, coupled with his statement that he was 
there by his superior's orders and would obey them 
to the letter, made it plain that, however much the 
two home countries were at peace, the American colo- 
nies would have to fight for their rights, as they con- 
ceived them to be, in these Western regions. As is 
to be seen, this colonial English war with the colonial 
French was destined to accomplish three far-reach- 
ing results. It would unite the English colonies, it 
would give them an extended view of their human 
rights, and it would develop a leader in George Wash- 
ington. 

At first the support given the Governor, even in 
Virginia, was very meagerly and grudgingly given. 

" Those who offered to enlist," says Washington, 
"were for the most part loose, idle persons, without 
house or home, some without shoes or stockings, some 
shirtless, and many without coat or waistcoat." 

One of the French officers had boasted to Wash- 
ington that the French would be the first to take pos- 
session of the Ohio lands, because the English were 
so slow, and it proved true. 

Captain Trent had been sent with about fifty men 
to build a fort at the fork of the Ohio River, the place 
recommended by Washington. But, when it was less 



RIVALRY AND DIPLOMACY 31 

than half done, a thousand Frenchmen appeared and 
ordered the English fort-builders to leave. They 
were glad to have that privilege. A few days after 
"Washington arrived at Will's creek, with probably 
two hundred men, the fort-builders came in and told 
their story. 

It was known that the French had abundance of 
war-supplies, could receive reinforcements on short 
notice, were already at least five to one in numbers, 
and had the assured support of at least six hundred 
Indians. 

Washington's men were undisciplined, and Trent's 
men being volunteers for other service were insubor- 
dinate. There were no supplies, and reinforcements 
were doubtful. 

But even in such a forlorn condition, he must be 
master of the situation or all would indeed be lost. 
He decided to fortify the Ohio Company's store- 
houses at Redstone Creek, acquaint the colonies of 
his condition and await necessary reinforcements. 
In this management under difficulties, he had an ex- 
perience and training, probably of great service to 
his country in the nobler cause of political liberty, 
that was destined to be his task for grander years to 
come. 



32 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

III. INDIFFERENCE TO GREAT INTERESTS 

The wilderness, the Indians, the French, and the 
slow-moving management coming from the colonies, 
offered difficulties almost insurmountable, and it 
would take a volume to describe in detail the condi- 
tions and affairs. Even the officers were almost in 
mutiny over their pay. 

"Let me serve voluntarily," Washington wrote to 
the Governor, "and I will, with the greatest pleasure, 
devote my services to this expedition, — but, to be 
slaving through woods, rocks and mountains for the 
shadow of pay, I would rather toil like a day laborer 
for a maintenance, if reduced to the necessity, than 
to serve on such ignoble terms. " 

In a letter to his friend, Colonel Fairfax, in which 
he preferred to serve as a volunteer without pay, 
rather than for what he was getting, he added, "for 
the motives that have led me here are pure and noble. 
I had no view of acquisition but that of honor, by 
serving faithfully my king and my country." 

In the midst of all this dissatisfaction and distress, 
word came through Indian scouts that the French 
were marching to attack him. The tracks of a scout- 
ing party having been discovered, an Indian was put 
on the trail and he found the camp of the enemy. 



RIVALRY AND DIPLOMACY 33 

Washington determined to surprise them. He 
planned to slip up on one side of them, as his Indian 
allies did the same on the other side. Between them 
he believed he could capture them all. But the sharp 
watch of the French caught sight of the English and 
the forest battle began. One of Washington's men 
had been killed and three wounded in a fifteen min- 
utes' battle, when the French, having lost several and 
becoming frightened at being between two fires, gave 
way and ran. They were soon overtaken and cap- 
tured, excepting one who escaped and carried the 
news to the fort at the forks of the Ohio. Ten of 
the French had been killed and one wounded. 
Twenty-one were prisoners. 

Though this battle, as measured in the deeds of 
other wars, was indeed a small affair, it was weighty 
with consequence for the interests of America. It 
was Washington's first experience in battle. In a let- 
ter to one of his brothers, he says, ' ' I heard the bullets 
whistle, and, believe me, there is something charming 
in the sound." 

This statement of a boy, at the age of twenty-two 
in the first emotions of military excitement, is hardly 
to be called mere rodomontade as Horace Walpole 
termed it. It is said that George II remarked, when 
he was told of this expression used by the young Vir- 
ginian commander, "He would not say so, if he had 



34 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

been used to hear many." Forty years later, when 
Washington was President of the United States of 
America, he was asked about the so-called charm of 
whistling bullets, and he replied, "If I said so, it 
was when I was young.' ' 

The victory of this battle, small as it was, aroused 
the colonists and held the confidence of the Indians. 
The Indian chief sent the scalps of the ten slain sol- 
diers to the different tribes and called on them to 
come at once to the help of their brothers, the Eng- 
lish. 

Washington's difficulty in getting supplies and in 
obtaining reinforcements taxed all his powers and all 
his stability of character. There was no doubt that 
the entire success of the campaign depended upon his 
patience and resourceful perseverance. It was mak- 
ing the twenty-two-year-old gentleman of Mount 
Vernon and Belvoir very rapidly into a hardy war- 
rior of the wilderness, and a tactful manager of men. 
These qualities were being strengthened for the com- 
ing great day, when there should be a new nation. 
Doubtless the sordid stupidity of the colonial gover- 
nors, in their tardy and meager support of him, had 
much to do in preparing the way for ideas of inde- 
pendence and a self-governing body of States. 



CHAPTER V 

THE CONSEQUENCE OP ARROGANCE AND 
IGNORANCE 



I. ANNOYANCES AND ANTAGONISMS 

Heroism appears often to be a thankless task. 
Patience had about vanished when, most op- 
portunely, Adjutant Muse, Washington's instructor 
in military tactics, arrived with much needed sup- 
plies, and also suitable presents for the Indians. A 
grand ceremonial of presentation took place. The 
pompous ceremonial seemed to be very dear to the 
heart of those so-called simple children of the forests. 
The chiefs were decorated in all their barbaric finery. 
Washington wore a big medal sent him by the Gov- 
ernor, intended to be impressively used on such occa- 
sions. Washington gave the presents and decorated 
the chiefs and warriors with the medals, which they 
were to wear in memory of their brethren, the Eng- 
lish, and their father, the King of England. 

35 



36 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

One of the warriors, the son of Queen Aliquippa, 
wanted the honor of having an English name, so, in 
elaborate ceremonial, Washington bestowed upon 
him the name Fairfax. The principal chief of the 
tribes desiring a like honor was given the name of 
the governor, Dinwiddie. 

William Fairfax had, about this time, written a 
letter to Washington advising that he hold religious 
services in camp, especially for the benefit of the In- 
dians. This was done, and the imagination can pic- 
ture the motley assembly being so solemnly presided 
over in that picturesque wilderness by the boyish 
commander of a no less motley army. 

In reading about big wars, in which there are mil- 
lions striving for the bloody mastery, with monster 
machines of modern destruction, it may sound trivial 
to read of the fear with which Washington's wilder- 
ness army heard of the approach of ninety French- 
men. But, in truth, this handful of men were at the 
beginning of the greatest human interests, and were 
giving direction to human affairs hardly less conse- 
quential than the European War. 

Washington, with the buoyant fervor of youth, sal- 
lied forth from the fort, hoping to have the honor of 
presenting Governor Dinwiddie with a choice lot of 
French prisoners. The scouts had certainly been 
well scared. The ninety French warriors were found 



THE CONSEQUENCE OF ARROGANCE 37 

to be nine deserters anxious to be captured. But 
they gave valuable information regarding Fort Du- 
quesne, which was put to good use by Washington. 

Now began one of those little annoyances which 
marked the feeling of British officers toward Colonial 
officers, and showed the state of mind which was at 
last to be an intolerable antagonism between England 
and America. 

Captain Mackay arrived with an independent com- 
pany of North Carolinians. Captain Mackay held a 
commission direct from the King, "Washington held 
his by Colonial authority ; therefore, Captain Mackay 
believed himself and his company to have far super- 
ior standing to that of Washington and his provincial 
men. 

The result was that he would not associate himself 
in any way with Washington nor allow his men to 
have anything in common with Washington's men. 
No matter what Washington urged as to their com- 
mon danger and their common cause, he very haught- 
ily flouted every attempt made to have the two com- 
manders work together. 

The experience Washington had in managing this 
delicate and foolish situation was doubtless very val- 
uable in handling even more delicate and foolish sit- 
uations of vastly more consequence in the coming 
revolutionary war. 



38 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 



II. DISHONORS AND DISASTERS 

Finding that co-operation with the North Caro- 
lina troops was impossible, Washington left Fort 
Necessity in their charge, and toiled forward through 
the forest, making a military road toward Fort Du- 
quesne, which was at the point where Pittsburg now 
is, and which was in the very heart of the region 
claimed by the English colonies. 

Washington reached the station kept by Christo- 
pher Gist. This was the heroic woodsman who had 
been his companion through the most perilous part 
of his romantic journey when he carried the history- 
making message from the Governor of Virginia to 
the Commander of the French. 

Here he learned that a large force from Fort Du- 
quesne was coming against him. He hastily threw 
up fortifications and called in all his forces, including 
several companies of Indians. A messenger was 
hastily despatched to Captain Mackay at Fort Neces- 
sity, thirteen miles away, and he came on with the 
swivel guns of the fort. A council of war soon de- 
cided that they could not hold their own at this place, 
and must retreat to more favorable grounds for a 
stand against the enemy. 

In the retreat that followed, the Virginians were 



THE CONSEQUENCE OF ARROGANCE 39 

greatly exasperated by the North Carolinians. Mack- 
ay's men were " King's soldiers' ' and so would not 
belittle themselves with the labors of the retreat. At 
Great Meadows, in the center of which was Fort 
Necessity, the Virginians, exhausted and resentful, 
refused to go any farther, and Washington decided 
to make his stand there. 

They had left Gist's station none too soon. At 
dawn on the morning following the retreat, Captain 
de Villiers with five hundred Frenchmen and several 
hundred Indians surrounded the place. Finding 
that the English had escaped, they were about to re- 
turn to Fort Duquesne, when a deserter from Wash- 
ington's camp arrived. He told them that he had 
escaped to keep from starving to death, and that the 
troops under Washington were in mutiny over their 
desperate situation. 

De Villiers set out at once to capture Fort Neces- 
sity. 

Meanwhile, Washington set the Virginians at work 
strengthening the defences of the fort. The Indians 
seeing such inferior equipment for defense, and the 
discord among the troops, became afraid and de- 
serted. 

On the morning of July 3, 1754, the French arrived 
at the edge of Great Meadows and began firing from 
behind trees, at whatever they could see. All day 



40 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

Washington kept his men close sheltered in the 
trenches, keeping the enemy at rifle's distance in the 
edge of the woods. At night a steady downpour of 
rain began, half drowning the men in the trenches 
and ruining their ammunition. 

At eight o'clock the French demanded a parley 
looking to the surrender of Fort Necessity. Wash- 
ington at first refused, but their condition was hope- 
less. The only person with them who understood any 
French was Jacob Van Braam, the swordsmanship 
teacher of Washington at Mount Vernon. 

Van Braam went back and forth in the drenching 
storm of the black night, between the lines, with the 
negotiations. At last the French sent in their ulti- 
matum. Van Braam tried to translate it by the light 
of a candle, under cover of a rude tent, through which 
the rain was pouring upon candle, paper and per- 
sons. The terms of the surrender were very humil- 
iating and reflected severely on Washington's honor, 
but according to Van Braam 's translation the terms, 
though hard, were acceptable. 

Washington signed the document and the next 
morning the bedraggled and disheartened men 
marched out with the honors of war, though the docu- 
ment of surrender, as afterward correctly translated, 
did not leave a shred of honor for the defeated col- 
onists. It was then believed that Van Braam had 



THE CONSEQUENCE OF ARROGANCE 41 

purposely mistranslated it in the service of the 
French, with whom he and Captain Stobo had to re- 
main as hostages. But subsequent information from 
the French exhonorated Van Braam from this 
charge, deciding that the mistranslation was from 
ignorance and not intentional. 

The soldiers were put into quarters at Will's creek, 
and Washington went on to make his report to the 
Governor. 

The Virginia legislature took up an investigation 
of the charges as to Van Braam 's treason and Cap- 
tain Stobo 's cowardice, as well as the conduct of 
Washington, and the questions of the surrender. 
Thanks and rewards were freely voted to the troops, 
but it was some time later before evidence came in, 
establishing the patriotic character of Van Braam 
and Stobo. 



III. WASHINGTON ENTERING THE SCHOOL OF WAR 

The French were so elated with their victory, and 
the belief that the English had been permanently ex- 
pelled, that they withdrew most of their troops from 
Fort Duquesne and abandoned all precautions 
against surprise and attack. Before the end of a 
month Captain Stobo, who was being held by them as 



42 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

hostage, smuggled a letter out by a friendly Indian 
describing all the conditions and laying out a plan 
by which the fort could easily be surprised and taken. 
He mentioned the boasts of the French and said it 
was worse than death to hear them. He said that he 
and his fellow prisoner, Van Braam, were ready at 
any time to lay down their lives for their country. 
This letter, after much wandering, reached the Gov- 
ernor of Pennsylvania and was by him sent to the 
Governor of Virginia. 

Captain Stobo's plan was practical. As all kinds 
of Indians were being allowed without question to 
come and go as they pleased at Fort Duquesne, he 
advised that the fort be first occupied by friendly 
Indians, who would hold it till it could be turned over 
to the Colonial troops. 

Governor Dinwiddie wanted the honor himself and 
he planned several ways of his own to capture the 
fort. These were re j ected by Washington. 

Now began unceasingly the wrangle and turmoil 
between the arrogance of King's authority and the 
native independence of the colonist's ideals and char- 
acter. The colonists were not allowed to have any 
officer above the rank of Captain, and Washington 
quit the service. 

Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, was appointed by 
the King as Commander of all the forces used to re- 



THE CONSEQUENCE OF ARROGANCE 43 

cover the King's territory from the French, and he 
wrote a letter to Washington, trying to enlist his 
services. 

Washington's reply gives some insight into his in- 
dependence and maturity of mind at this time. 

"You make mention," he replied, "of my con- 
tinuing in the service and retaining my colonel's com- 
mission. The idea has filled me with surprise ; for, if 
you think me capable of holding a commission that 
has neither rank nor emolument annexed to it, you 
must maintain a very contemptible opinion of my 
weakness, and believe me more empty than the com- 
mission itself." 

He added that it was no desire to quit the service 
which caused him to reject the offer, but the call of 
honor and the advice of friends, because his feel- 
ings were strong for the military life. 

Washington now returned to Mount Vernon, 
where he took up a quiet agricultural life, though 
constantly in association and council with his coun- 
trymen over the rapidly developing questions of war 
between the colonies and the French. 

France was secretly pouring troops and means into 
Canada, and England was as busy making ready in 
the equipment of the colonies, though the two home 
governments were professing to be profoundly at 
peace. 



44 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

Alexandria, near by, merely a pleasurable horse- 
back ride from Mount Vernon, was the scene of gath- 
ering forces, now under command of an experienced 
English General named Braddock. Ships of war and 
transports were constantly passing up the Potomac 
past Mount Vernon. 

What a glorious array over Washington's ragged 
forces of the year before! His military ardor was 
again kindled. The boom of cannon outranked the 
moo of cattle in his meadows. The youth of twenty- 
three, who had already tasted the glory as well as 
the defeat of battle, could no longer endure the peace- 
ful shades of Mount Vernon. He let it be known that 
he would like to be attached as an independent volun- 
teer to General Braddock 's staff. The offer was very 
decorously given and accepted. He had neither 
"rank nor emolument" in this position, but it was 
also neither subservient nor responsible. He was 
merely an attache, a visitor as it were, in General 
Braddock 's family of advisers. 

His mother, hearing of this move to return to the 
army, hurried to Mount Vernon to dissuade him. She 
wanted him to remain a country gentleman attending 
to their property interests, which were hard for her 
to manage. But the spirit of Washington seemed to 
feel a greater destiny. His mind was made up and 
he joined the General whose name is so familiar in 



THE CONSEQUENCE OF ARROGANCE 45 

the history classes of the public schools in the United 
States. 

This conflict, so important in preparing the colo- 
nies for the struggle toward independence and for 
the causes that made them seek independence, became 
known in American history as the French and In- 
dian war. 

The story of it can nowhere be better told, nor 
more understandingly read, for its significance to 
American independence, than in the school histories. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE STRUGGLE FOR FORT DUQUESNE 



I. THE SEPARATION BEGINNING BETWEEN THE COLONIES 
AND ENGLAND 

The arrogance and ignorance that so estranged 
the American colonies and broke down their spirit of 
allegiance to Great Britain may be well exhibited in 
an extract from the Autobiography of Benjamin 
Franklin. The experiences of this eminent man in 
making a visit to General Braddock came to pass 
through the following series of events. 

Sir John St. Clair was, at this time, in command 
at Fort Cumberland. He ordered the colony of 
Pennsylvania to cut a road through to the Ohio. The 
redoubtable commander seemed to think it was only a 
child's job or a few days' work. As it was not done 
promptly, he got into a rage, and, according to the 
pioneer woodsman, George Croghan, " stormed like 
a lion rampant." He declared that "by fire and 

46 



THE STRUGGLE FOR FORT DUQUESNE 47 

sword' ' he would oblige the inhabitants to build that 
road. He said that if the French defeated him it 
would be because of the slow Pennsylvanians, and, 
in that case, he would declare them "a parcel of trait- 
ors,' ' and the colony should be treated as being in 
rebellion against the King. 

Likewise, as Braddock got ready to move, Sir John 
became furious at obstacles which, not knowing till 
then that they existed, he considered that they had no 
right to exist, and therefore that the people were to 
be blamed. In this state of trouble between the people 
and the English officers, who knew so little of the 
wilderness, Benjamin Franklin, then forty-nine 
years of age, was called on to act as peacemaker. He 
visited Braddock and was received and treated as a 
worthy guest. This visit gave him a chance to see 
into the fatal ignorance and arrogance of the English 
government, and to understand the irreconciliable 
points of view between the colonies and England. 

"In conversation one day," says Franklin, "Gen- 
eral Braddock gave me some account of his intended 
progress. ' After taking Fort Duquesne,' said he, 'I 
am to proceed to Niagara ; and, having taken that, on 
to Frontenac, if the season will allaw time; and I 
suppose it will, for Duquesne can hardly detain me 
above three or four days ; and then I can see nothing 
that can obstruct my march to Niagara.' " 



48 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

Franklin very tactfully and diplomatically ven- 
tured to describe the long road that must be cut 
through forests all the way, the thin line of troops 
that would have to be stretched out in the march 
along the narrow way, and the ambush of Indians 
breaking out upon that thin, long line at various 
places. 

"He smiled at my ignorance," says Franklin, "and 
replied, ' These savages may indeed be a formidable 
enemy to raw American militia, but upon the King's 
regular and disciplined troops, Sir, it is impossible 
that they should make any impression.' " 

Franklin adds, "I was conscious of an impropriety 
in my disputing with a military man in matters of his 
profession, and said no more." 

To defeat an enemy, it is very clear that one should 
know how the enemy thinks and what he does. This 
was the schooling that George Washington was now 
getting. The place he had on General Braddock's 
staff was teaching him the tactics of English generals, 
against which he was a few years later to wage a 
glorious war for an ideal of American freedom and 
the establishment of a democratic form of govern- 
ment in America. 

The disastrous defeat of Braddock's expedition 
and the death of Braddock has always formed a stir- 
ring chapter in American school histories, until in 



THE STRUGGLE FOR FORT DUQUESNE 49 

recent times it has been more and more lessened in 
the length of description because of the increasing 
story of American affairs. Washington's part in 
it is interesting largely because of the preparation 
it gave him for the great work of leading the colonial 
armies in the Revolutionary War. 



II. LESSONS GATHERED FROM DEFEAT 

General Braddock, with the most stupid disdain 
of both natural obstacles and native advice, especially 
regardless of Washington's warning, pushed on to 
overwhelm the French and Indians, as he had out- 
lined to Franklin. His disastrous defeat and tragic 
death awoke the colonists to their danger, but it 
seemed to have little effect on the arrogance and ig- 
norance of the supposed military protectors of the 
colonies. 

Fugitives from the disastrous battle field spread 
through the colonies and the news ran from mouth to 
mouth along the wilderness roads, gathering in exag- 
geration as it went. To counteract this news at his 
own home, Washington wrote to his mother as speed- 
ily as possible. Referring to the battle, he said, ' i The 
Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery, and 



50 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

were nearly all killed. The dastardly behavior of 
those they called regulars exposed all others, that 
were ordered to their duty, to almost certain death ; 
and, at last, in spite of all the efforts of the officers 
to the contrary they ran, as sheep pursued by dogs, 
and it was impossible to rally them." 

In writing to his half-brother, Augustine, he said, 
"As I have heard, since my arrival at this place, a 
circumstantial account of my death and dying speech, 
I take this early opportunity of contradicting the 
first, and of assuring you that I have not composed 
the latter. But, by the all-powerful dispensations of 
Providence, I have been protected beyond all human 
probability, or expectation; for I had four bullets 
through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet 
escaped unhurt, though death was levelling my com- 
panions on every side of me!" 

The defeat of Braddock, we may safely set down 
as one of the most extensive liberating forces in the 
new world. It struck out of the minds of the colo- 
nists the respect and fear which held them captive to 
the mastery of hands from across the sea. The dis- 
aster was not only a rout and a slaughter but it was 
at last revealed as a military disgrace and an inex- 
cusable blunder. 

The commander of Fort Duquesne had only a 
handful of men. He was fully decided on either 




Washington in Command. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR FORT DUQUESNE 51 

abandoning the fort at once, or in surrendering on 
the best terms he could get, when Captain de Beaujeu 
obtained leave to take two hundred and eighteen 
French soldiers and six hundred and thirty Indians, 
eight hundred and thirty-five in all, for the purpose 
of delaying the British advance by ambush. These 
forest rangers met Braddock's twelve hundred select 
soldiers, and threw them back in such a panic that, 
when the commander, Dunbar, reached Fort Cumber- 
land, where there were fif ten hundred more seasoned 
troops, no stand was made, but the flight was con- 
tinued on to Philadelphia. 

Washington's intimate associate, Dr. Hugh Mer- 
cer, was so severely wounded in the shoulder that he 
could not keep up with the fugitives. He hid in a 
fallen tree and witnessed the terrible scenes of the 
battlefield after the soldiers had fled. The wounded 
were tortured, scalped and all were stripped of every- 
thing the Indians could use. Then the wild horde 
left, yelling through the woods, waving aloft the 
scalps. The Indians were bedecked with glittering 
uniforms, and loaded with booty. 

Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography 
that "this whole transaction gave us the first sus- 
picion that our exalted ideas of the powers of British 
regular troops had not been well founded." 

What Washington thought about it all is well 



52 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

summed up and very tersely expressed in a letter to 
his half-brother Augustine. It shows us what all this 
had done for the loyal and patriotic mind of Wash- 
ington. It reveals how his mind, like that of other 
colonists, was being prepared for the event, that led 
to a break with the home-country England. 

In that very expressive letter he says, "I was em- 
ployed to go a journey in Winter, when I believe few 
or none would have undertaken it, and what did I get 
by it ? — my expenses home ! I was then appointed, 
with trifling pay, to conduct a handful of men to the 
Ohio. What did I get by that? Why, after putting 
myself to a considerable expense in equipping and 
providing necessaries for the campaign, I went out, 
was soundly beaten and lost all ! Came in and had 
my commission taken from me; or, in other words, 
my command reduced, under pretense of an order 
from home (England). I then went out a volunteer 
with General Braddock, and lost all my horses, and 
many other things. But, this being a voluntary act, 
I ought not to have mentioned it ; nor should I have 
done so, were it not to show that I have been on the 
losing order ever since I entered the service, which is 
now nearly two years." 

This historical summary was the experience in div- 
ers ways of very many colonists, but they did not 
have any suggestion of how that bitter experience 



THE STRUGGLE FOR FORT DUQUESNE 53 

was really to become a great blessing to the cause of 
liberty throughout the earth. 



III. SOME PERSONAL INTERESTS AT HOME 

Here and there we catch glimpses of Washington 
showing that he was not the sculptured majesty that 
was pictured for his youth by writers in the early de- 
cades of the nineteenth century. We prefer to think 
of him as sympathetic, gallant, and enjoying the fa- 
miliar courtesies of common life. That Washington 
was not without social friendship is shown in a note 
which he received from three young ladies written 
him from Belvoir on his return from the French and 
Indian war. It speaks for itself: 

" Dear Sir: 

"After thanking heaven for your safe return, I 
must accuse you of great unkindness in refusing us 
the pleasure of seeing you this evening. If you will 
not come to us tomorrow morning very early, we shall 
be at Mount Vernon. 

" Sallie Fairfax. 
Ann Spearing. 
Elizabeth Dent." 



54 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

There is no record to complete the picture of these 
young ladies' interest in Washington, but if they 
could have such a view of his sociability with such 
propriety, we may be sure that he was not above the 
common human sympathies that fill the hard lines 
of life. 

Washington's connection with the army had ceased 
at the death of Braddock, but he was still adjutant- 
general of the northern division of the Province. 
Braddock 's defeat had thoroughly frightened the 
colonists, and panic-stricken rumors surged around 
that French and Indians were about to make incur- 
sions here and there and everywhere. The slow-go- 
ing legislative bodies suddenly woke up and voted 
the organization of ample supplies and men. An un- 
dignified scramble took place for favorites to be given 
high commands. Washington was urged by his 
friends to be a candidate, but he refused. As to this 
matter he wrote, "If the command should be offered 
me, the case will then be altered, as I should be at 
liberty to make such objections as reason, and my 
small experience, have pointed out." 

In the midst of this turmoil he received a letter 
from his mother begging him not to go back into the 
war but to return to his home-life and become a busi- 
ness man. His reply to her is quite significant of 
the character of Washington : 



THE STRUGGLE FOR FORT DUQUESNE 55 

"Honored Madam: 

"If it is in my power to avoid going to the Ohio 
again, I shall; but if the command is pressed upon 
me by the general voice of the country, and offered 
upon such terms as can not be objected against, it 
would reflect dishonor upon me to refuse it ; and that, 
I am sure, must, and ought to give you greater un- 
easiness than my going in an honorable command. 
Upon no other terms will I accept it. At present, I 
have no proposals made to me, nor have I any ad- 
vice of such an intention, except from private 
hands.' ' 

But, it so happened that on the same day, after this 
letter had been sent away, he received the news that 
he had been appointed commander-in-chief of all the 
forces of Virginia, and upon the terms he had out- 
lined to his friends. Besides, his closest friends were 
appointed officers next in command to him. 

This was a triumph over Governor Dinwiddie, who 
had a special favorite whom he had pressed hard for 
the appointment. It was also made for a man who 
had risen to that esteem among his countrymen, not 
through victories but through defeats, not through 
success but through failure. And, it must be remem- 
bered, that Washington was not yet twenty-four 
years old. But the general esteem in which he was 



56 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

held may be gathered from a statement made in a 
sermon at the time of his appointment, by the Rev. 
Samuel Davis. It might have been mere enthusiasm, 
but, in the light of such great subsequent events, it 
looked like prophecy. 

He turned from his religious theme to the needs 
of the colonies, and then spoke of "that heroic youth, 
Colonel George Washington, whom I can not but 
hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal 
a manner for some important service to his country." 






CHAPTER VII 
THE FATE OF THE OHIO VALLEY 



[. FRONTIER FEARS AND PANICS 

There was an abundance of responsibility at once 
for Washington in his new official position. All the 
frontiers were being attacked by Indians urged on 
by the French. Washington tried to get his troops 
together to meet the Indians at the outposts, but he 
was unable at the main post to muster more than 
twenty-five of the militia. The others declared that 
if they had to die they preferred to die with their 
women and children. 

In his first report to the Governor, he wrote, "No 
orders are obeyed, but such as a party of soldiers or 
my own drawn sword enforces. Without this, not a 
single horse, for the most earnest occasion, can be 
had, — to such a pitch has the insolence of these peo- 
ple arrived, by having every point hitherto submitted 

57 



58 THEi STORY OF WASHINGTON 



to them. However, I have given up none, where His 
Majesty's service requires the contrary, and where 
my proceedings are justified by my instructions ; nor 
will I, unless they execute what they threaten, — that 
is, to blow out our brains." 

This was naturally at the period of Washington's 
greatest loyalty to his Sovereign, and also shows that 
some of Braddock's notions of military authority 
still lingered with him. Perhaps it is better to say 
that he recognized the military necessity for obedient 
discipline in a common purpose and result, or there 
could be no successful army. 

We may easily guess that the insolence to which he 
refers was the frontiersman's disrespect for military 
authority and his growing belief in his own right to 
choose the manner of his service or his death. These 
men had been as badly treated by the Braddock style 
of authority as Washington had been, and most of 
his troubles doubtless arose from their memory of in- 
solence in the officers. 

As an example of the panic and confusion of the 
times, while Washington was at Winchester endeav- 
oring to get his troops organized, a man came run- 
ning into town, one Sunday afternoon, saying in 
breathless terror that a horde of Indians was only 
twelve miles off, killing and burning everything they 
came to. Washington remained up all night prepar- 






THE FATE OF THE OHIO VALLEY 59 

ing for the attack. At about dawn on Monday morn- 
ing, another man arrived, declaring that a host of 
Indians was now within four miles of the town. He 
had himself heard the guns of the Indians and the 
shrieks of the victims. The scouts sent out by Wash- 
ington had not yet returned, and the terror-stricken 
people at once guessed that they had been ambushed 
and killed. 

All that Washington could get together equipped 
to meet the Indian drive was only forty men. At the 
head of these he rode forth to the scene of massacre 
and carnage. All that they ever found was three 
drunken troopers who had been yelling in their ca- 
rousal on the way to town and firing off their pistols. 

Washington arrested them and brought them in as 
trophies of the Indian war. 

" These circumstances," Washington wrote in his 
report, "show what a panic prevails among the peo- 
ple ; how much they are all alarmed at the most usual 
customary crimes ; and yet how impossible it is to get 
them to act in any respect for their common safety." 

A Captain arriving at that time with recruits from 
Alexandria, reported that, in coming across the Blue 
Ridge, he had met a crowd of people hastening away 
in terror, whom he could not stop. They all told him 
that the Indians had overwhelmed the country and 
that Winchester had been sacked and burned. 



60 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

Washington saw that nothing but confusion and 
cross purposes could prevail under the conditions as 
they then existed. Accordingly, he set about to re- 
form the methods and the laws. Under his manage- 
ment, order at last came out of chaos. He also 
learned the uses of military show to give confidence 
and he ordered rather gorgeous uniforms to be sent 
him from England. This was probably necessary in 
order also to retain the respect of the young English 
officers for whom it was often true that the clothes 
made the man. 



II. POLITICAL INTRIGUE AND OFFICIAL CONFUSION 

Early in 1756, in order to get the necessary co- 
operation among the colonies, to settle the bitter 
quarrels as to rank among officers, and to give the 
Virginia colony a better idea of the plan for the war, 
Washington decided to visit General Shirley, at Bos- 
ton. General Shirley had succeeded General Brad- 
dock as commander-in-chief of all the colonies. 

Washington, with his aides in brilliant uniform, 
taken care of by a retinue of colored servants in fin- 
est livery, all riding in a pompous cavalcade, repre- 
senting the style of aristocratic Southern gentlemen, 
made a profound social sensation all along the line 



THE FATE OF THE OHIO VALLEY 61 

of their travel, especially in Philadelphia, New York 
and Boston. After ten days' conference in Boston, 
his mission being successful, he returned to Virginia 
as he had come. 

On Washington's return to his headquarters at 
Winchester, he found the people in more desperate 
terror than ever, and this time with good reason. 
The French and Indians were indeed ravaging the 
country within twenty miles. Any hour the enemy 
might sweep down upon the wretched town and de- 
stroy the people. If Washington could not save them 
they were indeed lost. It is said that the women sur- 
rounded him with terror-stricken cries, holding up 
their children, and imploring him to save them from 
the savages. 

The feelings of the young commander may be ap- 
preciated from the letter he wrote to Governor Din- 
widdie. 

"I am too little acquainted with pathetic lan- 
guage," he said, "to attempt a description of these 
people's distresses. But what can I do ? I see their 
situation; I know their danger, and participate in 
their sufferings, without having it in my power to 
give them further relief than uncertain promises. 
The supplicating tears of the women, and the moving 
petitions of the men, melt me into such deadly sor- 
row, that I solemnly declare, if I know my own mind, 



62 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butcher- 
ing enemy, provided that would contribute to the 
people's ease." 

But the Virginia newspapers very freely cast the 
blame for the Indian's success on the military man- 
agement. Washington was deeply stung with these 
attacks and he declared that he would resign at once, 
if it were not for the immediate dangers pressing so 
hard upon them. Then his friends began writing him 
encouraging letters and he was strengthened to see 
the issues through to some end. 

"The country knows her danger," said one of the 
Virginia legislators, "but such is her parsimony that 
she is willing to wait for the rains to wet the powder, 
and the rats to eat the bowstrings of the enemy, 
rather than attempt to drive her foes from her fron- 
tiers." 

But gradually through more blundering and still 
more confusion of purpose, after the French had be- 
gun to lose heavily in the North, a course of concerted 
action was once more organized against Fort Du- 
quesne, as the center of supplies for the French and 
Indians in their frontier warfare. Scouts contin- 
ually brought in reports that Fort Duquesne had 
become greatly weakened and it was believed by all 
that this place should now be taken to make good the 
success on the northern frontier. 



THE FATE OF THE OHIO VALLEY 63 

At length such an expedition was on the way, and 
Washington wrote to the Commander, General 
Forbes, to be allowed to join the expedition with his 
command. This request was accepted, and, on July 
2, 1758, Washington arrived at Fort Cumberland. 



in. "a matter of great admiration" 



War was at hand, but getting into action to ac- 
complish results was distractingly slow. No word 
arrived as to what they were to do. They remained 
at Fort Cumberland to the disgust of Washington, 
and to the increased dispiriting, sickly condition of 
his men, until September. Then they went forward 
under Colonel Boquet to a point called Loyal Han- 
non, fifty miles from Fort Duquesne. Here they 
stopped, and, against Washington's earnest remon- 
strance, Colonel Boquet detached eight hundred men 
from his force of two thousand, and sent them for- 
ward to reconnoiter about Fort Duquesne, under 
command of Major Grant. They were not to engage 
the enemy but were to return and report. 

However, Major Grant believed they were easily 
able to whip anything that might be in or about Fort 
Duquesne. He could not open an attack on them 



64 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

according to orders, but if he could induce them to 
attack him, it would give him a chance for a fight. 
Accordingly, he made no attempt to conceal his ap- 
proach to the fort. He arrived near the place in the 
night and sent some men forward who set fire to a log 
house near the walls of the fort. If this was not 
enough warning to the enemy, or of a dare to come 
out and fight, he ordered the drums to beat the 
reveille around the camp in the morning. After that 
he lined up his troops in battle array, as did Brad- 
dock before him, and sent up some men near the 
fort, to draw plans of that structure in full view of 
the enemy. 

There was not a shot fired from the fort and no 
sound could be heard within its walls. Not a soldier 
or an Indian could be seen. 

The officers became sure that nothing more was 
needed but to send forward the order for surrender. 
The soldiers were allowed to ground their arms and 
be at ease. Suddenly the woods around them blazed 
with the discharge of rifles. The dreaded warwhoop 
rang in their ears. The tomahawk and scalping knife 
was in their midst. A second Braddock's defeat had 
begun. A panic-stricken rout began. Major Grant 
saved his life by surrendering to a French officer, but 
most of his men were dead and the rest scattered like 
wild animals. 



THE FATE OF THE OHIO VALLEY 65 

Back of them a short distance was Captain Bullitt, 
who had been left with fifty men to care for the army 
stores. He rallied together some of the fugitives and 
they made a stand behind the baggage and wagons. 
The Indians rushed forward and were momentarily 
checked by the sudden fire of the ambushed men. 
Then, with the on-coming force of Indians from back 
of the ones stopped, the rush came on. 

Then Captain Bullitt held up a signal for surren- 
der and the firing ceased. The besieged men all came 
forward. When within eight yards of the Indians 
waiting to receive their guns, Captain Bullitt gave 
the order to fire, the guns having all been loaded for 
that purpose. From this destructive volley at close 
range, the Indians fled in confusion, and before they 
could rally, Captain Bullitt got his men and wagons 
together, so protected as to make good their retreat. 

General Forbes commended Captain Bullitt's 
method of saving his troops as "a matter of great ad- 
miration, " and rewarded him with a Major's com- 
mission. There has been much discussion as to 
whether such methods made the Indians merciless 
or whether the merciless Indian required such meth- 
ods. The problem is doubtless as unprofitable now 
as it is unanswerable, from any partisan point of 
view. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE BEGINNING SIGNS OF A GREAT 
REVOLUTION 



I. MILITARY VICTORY AND A HAPPY MARRIAGE 

Washington now had charge of the advance on 
Fort Duquesne. He left Loyal Hannon over the 
road Major Grant had taken. The whole fifty miles 
were strewn with the bones of oxen, horses and men. 
What remained of the bodies of their comrades, they 
buried. Then they arrived at the scene of Braddock 's 
defeat, where the same duty was done for the dead, a 
sad reminder of the folly of arrogance and ambition 
in commanders. 

They had expected to have a hard fight for the cap- 
ture of Fort Duquesne. But the success of the Eng- 
lish in Canada, and the fall of Fort Frontenac had 
left the French at Fort Duquesne without any 
chance for supplies or reinforcements. The fort was 

66 



SIGNS OF REVOLUTION 67 

already at the point of being abandoned from neces- 
sity. Accordingly, the commander waited until the 
English were within a day's march of him, when he 
withdrew his force of five hundred men, destroyed 
what he could not take away, set fire to all that would 
burn, embarked at night in their long, light batteaux, 
by the flames of their fort, and floated down the Ohio, 
giving up their hopeless fight for the possession of 
the Ohio Valley. 

On the morning of November 5, 1758, Washington 
with his advanced guard marched in and hoisted the 
British flag over the ruins. The enemy was gone. 
The Indians having lost the support of their French 
friends withdrew into the depths of the forest. 

Washington rebuilt the place, garrisoned it with 
two hundred men and named it Fort Pitt in honor of 
the illustrious British minister, William Pitt. 

Washington's military schooling, if we may so 
term it, in the light of great events to follow, was now 
ended. He had been engaged for marriage several 
months with Mrs. Martha Custis, a widow of the 
noblest womanly character, and considerable wealth. 
The marriage was accordingly celebrated January 6, 
1759, the month before he was twenty-seven years of 
age. He now settled down, away from war, into the 
life of a business man, as his mother, herself a busi- 
ness woman, had so fondly desired. 



68 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

The objects for which the French and Indian war 
had begun were now achieved for the colonists. But 
England was carrying the war further, aiming at 
nothing less than the conquest of Canada. The first 
gun had been fired at Washington at the time he was 
beaten in the race with the French for the forks of 
the Ohio. The last gun was fired at Quebec when all 
Canada became a possession seized by might of the 
British arms. 

The French were greatly grieved at their loss, but 
their great statesmen prophesied that it was a fatal 
victory for the English mastery of North America. 

The Duke de Choiseul said that it would awaken 
the colonies to their liberty and their power. It 
would bring the ideals of the wilderness in sharp con- 
trast with the imperialism of England. "They will 
no longer need her protection," said he, "she will call 
on them to contribute toward supporting the bur- 
dens they have helped bring on her, and they will 
answer by striking off their dependence." 

How true this was as a prophecy, the school his- 
tories all show to every pupil of the schools, who will 
try to get a view of the progress and development of 
historical events. Fact will then be stranger than 
fiction, and history will be a more romantic story, 
richer in the lessons of life, than any novel. 



SIGNS OF REVOLUTION 69 



II. LIFE FULFILLED AS A VIRGINIA COUNTRY GENTLEMAN 

Washington, after his marriage, at the close of the 
French and Indian war, became, as his mother had 
so long desired him to be, a country gentleman, not 
only with a large land-ownership, but also dignified 
with a seat in the legislative assembly of Virginia. 
He was rich, happily married and a hero! What 
more was to be desired in the heart of man ! 

On the day when Washington took his seat in the 
House of Burgesses, the speaker of the assembly 
arose and eloquently presented the thanks of the col- 
ony for the distinguished military services rendered 
by their fellow-member to his country, and especially 
to the welfare of Virginia. 

Washington arose at the conclusion of the eulogy 
to express his appreciation for what had been spoken 
in his honor. 

It is said that he " blushed — stammered — trembled, 
and could not utter a word." 

"Sit down, Mr. Washington," said the speaker, 
"your modesty equals your valor, and that surpasses 
the power of any language I possess." 

During the session of the Virginia legislature, 
Washington lived at the White House, as was called 
the home of his bride, and which was situated on her 



70 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

estate, near Williamsburg. That home has since been 
immortalized as the name of the Home of the Presi- 
dents of the United States. 

Mrs. Martha Custis was one of the wealthiest 
women in the English colonies when she married 
George Washington. At her request, the General 
Court appointed Washington the guardian of her 
boy of six and her girl of four, and the manager of 
all her property. 

His friends had long wanted him to visit England, 
believing, doubtless, from special information, that 
great honors awaited him there. No doubt there was 
in easy reach the usually much-coveted political pre- 
ferment, such as might have made him beholden to 
the King through all his future career. But we are 
perhaps entitled to believe that Washington's views 
of those honors were not qualified by the grateful 
respect that was necessary. An American of his 
honor and character probably cherished the good will 
of his countrymen as superior to any royal conde- 
scension. 

To these suggestions for a visit to England, he re- 
turned a characteristic reply, "I am now, I believe, 
fixed in this seat, with an agreeable partner for life, 
and I hope to find more happiness in retirement than 
I ever experienced in the wide and bustling world." 

At the end of the session of the Virginia legisla- 



SIGNS OF REVOLUTION 71 



ture, Washington and his family left the " White 
House" and made their home at Mount Vernon. 
Here he fully believed he was settled in a life of hap- 
piness and peace. It was the home of his childhood 
which he had spent with his beloved mother and his 
half-brother Lawrence. 

This home on the beautiful highlands of the Poto- 
mac was indeed the center of a little empire. It was 
a system of cultured, wealthy people, graded on down 
to the colored servants, in which everything needed 
for luxury, pleasure or enterprise was made and 
ready on the grounds. 

The home life of the Washington family is a reve- 
lation of the aristocratic democracy of the times. 
Many a story is told showing the wilderness culture 
and luxury mingled with the common interests of the 
lowly life. 

The treaty of peace, now including all affairs in 
the colonies, which was signed in 1763, between Eng- 
land and France, was greeted as a happy ending of 
all border troubles for the colonies. But, unfortu- 
nately, it seemed to let loose the savagery of the In- 
dians, whose tribes were now going to pieces before 
the advancing English Settlements. The right to 
the wilderness was a hand-to-hand conflict, in which 
the pioneer frontiersmen won the great victory for 
modern civilization. 



72 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 



III. THE MOMENTOUS STRUGGLE BETWEEN MIGHT 
AND RIGHT 

The border warfare continued as ferociously as 
ever before. Washington, being out of military life, 
with heavy business responsibilities upon him, did 
not become involved in these conflicts. 

Meanwhile, the prediction of the Duke de Choiseul 
that the colonies would rapidly see they had no need 
of England, and would as rapidly cease to fear its 
military power, was coming true. Irritation fol- 
lowed fast upon irritation, and arrogance bred re- 
sentment and retaliation so rapidly that it requires 
many a volume to tell it all. The colonists had to 
fight the battles of the border warfare, pay the costs, 
support the arrogant officers sent across the water, 
and yet find themselves regarded as inferiors fit only 
as producers for a land across the sea. But it should 
be understood from the beginning that history deals 
mainly with the makers of history who have been 
almost exclusively generals and kings. The common- 
ers, except as their minds are state-made, have no 
quarrel with the commoners of other countries. 

The first outbreak came against taxes placed on 
personal necessities in which the people had no rights 



SIGNS OF REVOLUTION 73 

or voice. The resentment was crystalized into an out- 
cry against ' ' taxation without representation. ' ' The 
bitter feeling found voice in a daring defiance uttered 
by Patrick Henry. He brought forward a resolution 
in the Virginia House of Burgesses, declaring that 
the General Assembly of Virginia had the exclusive 
right and power to lay taxes upon the people of Vir- 
ginia, and that whoever claimed to the contrary was 
an enemy of the colony. With that view the common- 
ers of England were in general sympathy, including 
many of the most influential men in that country. 
But the British court was foreign, that is, conti- 
nental. History tells us that King George the 
First, grandfather of George the Third, could speak 
only his native German, and held in profound con- 
tempt the English people. 

The Speaker of the House tried to have Patrick 
Henry's resolution modified as being too strong, but, 
in his speech for the resolution, the young orator, 
after a brilliant address, concluded with the memor- 
able and history-making words, "Caesar had his 
Brutus; Charles his Cromwell; and George the 
Third, — (here cries of ' Treason! Treason!' was 
heard) may profit by their example. Sir, if this be 

treason (here he bowed to the Speaker) — make 

the most of it!" 

The idea of liberty to make their own laws had 



74 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

now sprung forth, and it was taken up with immense 
enthusiasm throughout the colonies. 

The British Parliament seemed to look upon the 
colonies as Braddock had done upon the colonial sol- 
diers, — they were only half-civilized inferiors, and 
suitable only for menial service or to contribute profit 
to the mother country. Accordingly, month by 
month and year by year, the interference and resent- 
ment on both sides increased, by the passage of ob- 
noxious laws on one side, and resistance to their en- 
forcement on the other side. 

All this time, Washington was in the midst of the 
turmoil, not as a leader but more as a peacemaker, 
though always in full sympathy with the fast growing 
American idea. As we take a swift view of those 
times, we are apt to suppose that the change of mind, 
uniting the colonies in opposition to Great Britain, 
came suddenly and unanimously, but, as in all places 
and situations, where there is freedom of thinking, 
the general conviction came slowly, especially the 
conviction to use force in the defense of the rights of 
of man as learned in the hard freedom of the wilder- 
ness. What we might call the high-water mark of 
mind, in favor of force for maintaining colonial lib- 
erty, was that of Patrick Henry, whose slogan was 
"Give me liberty or give me death." 

On the other hand, there were many, from the aris- 




Washington Surrendering His Commission. 



SIGNS OF REVOLUTION 75 

tocratic mansion to the log cabin in the forest, who 
looked upon force against the mother country as a 
horror and a crime. Between these extremes, Wash- 
ington labored for patience among the colonists and 
a change of policy among the law-makers of Great 
Britain. In writing to his wife 's uncle, an influential 
man in London, he said, "The Stamp Act engrosses 
the conversation of the speculative part of the colo- 
nists, who look upon this unconstitutional method of 
taxation as a direful attack upon their liberties, and 
loudly exclaim against the violation. ' ' 

In the New England colonies, the people were far 
more fierce in their resentment toward the require- 
ment that they must buy stamps to make legal almost 
every transaction. This method of getting money 
for the British government was so offensive to Bos- 
ton that a publicly encouraged mob hanged the stamp 
distributor in efiigy, the windows of his house were 
broken, and the building to be used as his office was 
broken to pieces, and the fragments burned in the 
streets. The officers of the town, trying to disperse 
the crowd, were driven away with stones. The next 
morning the stamp distributor renounced his office 
in the public square and no one could be found will- 
ing to take his place. 

Down in Virginia, the stamp distributor did not 
try to fulfill his office, but came on to Williamsburg 



76 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

and amidst much applause publicly denounced the 
Stamp Act and vacated the office. 

On the first of November, 1765, when the act was to 
become law and go into operation, there was tolling 
of bells throughout New England. Ships in the har- 
bors displayed their flags at half-mast. Shops were 
shut, business was suspended, and every form of de- 
fiance they could invent was displayed all day and 
that night. 

At New York, the poster announcing the law was 
stuck on a pole, under a death's head, from which 
floated a banner bearing the inscription, "The folly 
of England and ruin of America.' ' The lieutenant- 
governor with all his official household went into the 
fort and surrounded himself with marines from a 
ship of war. Then the mob went to his stables, 
brought out his carriage, put his effigy into it, 
dragged it up and down the street till they were tired, 
and then hung his effigy on a gallows. That evening 
they took the effigy down, put it again into the car- 
riage, this time by the side of an image of the devil, 
had a howling torch-light procession to Bowling 
Green, and there, under the guns of the fort, burned 
the carriage with the effigies in it. So bitter and so 
general was the disapproval that no one attempted 
to enforce the law. 



CHAPTER IX 

SOWING THE WIND AND REAPING THE 
WHIRLWIND 



I. MOUNT VERNON AT FIRST IN A ZONE OF CALM 

In all this storm, Washington remained engrossed 
in his extensive business affairs. It can not be in- 
ferred that this meant any indifference on his part. 
It must be remembered that by nature he was of a re- 
tiring disposition and never put himself forward as 
a leader in any agitation. He was one w T ho believed 
in regularity and discipline. He could not destroy 
except as a process of building. His fighting spirit 
was always in accomplishing a definite design for 
foreseen ends. It is thus always seen that the man 
who is an agitator and a leader of agitation, however 
heroic and noble he may be in the cause of right, is 
never the calm, judicial mind necessary to construct 
material and form forces into a constitutional gov- 
ernment. The mind of man seems first to require a 

77 



78 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

forerunner. There was the determined, uncomprom- 
ising John the Baptist for the gentle and peace-lov- 
ing Christ, and there were numerous colonial Patrick 
Henrys for Washington, even as there were Love- 
joys, Garrisons and John Browns for Lincoln. Thus 
it appears, without irreverence, that agitation is as 
essential to education as legislation is to government. 

Washington's large interests in trade with Eng- 
land, and his many Old-England friends and con- 
nections, would have turned any man, who would 
serve his own personal profit, into partisanship for 
Great Britain. There is no doubt that the induce- 
ments to favor the mother country were large, and 
the promise of loss for doing otherwise was very 
heavy and convincing. But he had seen much of 
English arrogance and tyranny. He had also seen 
much of American freedom and human rights. 
There was probably never any debate in his mind as 
to which meant the most to him in personal duty or 
as an American. He had a deeper view of humanity 
than business interests. But his hour had not yet 
struck. The time had not yet come when the colonies 
needed Washington. 

Something of great significance took place in 1766. 
Benjamin Franklin was called before the House of 
Commons and questioned concerning the Stamp Act. 

"What," they asked him, according to the Parlia- 



SOWING THE WIND 79 



mentary Register of that year, "was the temper of 
America towards Great Britain, before the year 
1763 ?" 

"The best in the world," was his reply. "They 
submitted willingly to the government of the crown, 
and paid, in their courts, obedience to the acts of Par- 
liament. They were governed at the expense of only 
a little pen, ink and paper. They were led by a 
thread. They had not only respect, but an affection 
for Great Britain, for its laws, its customs, and man- 
ners, and even a fondness for its fashions, that 
greatly increased the commerce. Natives of Great 
Britain were always treated with particular regard ; 
to be an Old-England man was, of itself, a character 
of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us." 

"And what is that temper now % ' ' 

"Oh ! it is very much altered." 

"If the act is not repealed, what do you think will 
be the consequences?" 

"A total loss of the respect and affection the peo- 
ple of America bear to this country, and of all the 
commerce that depends upon that respect and affec- 
tion." 

"Do you think the people of America would sub- 
mit to pay the stamp duty if it was moderated ?" 

"No, never," Franklin replied, "unless compelled 
by force of arms. " 



80 TEE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

II. GIVING THE APPEARANCE AND KEEPING THE 
SUBSTANCE 

On March 18, 1766, the obnoxious Stamp Act was 
repealed, but the repeal contained a clause that took 
all the merit out of the repeal, by maintaining the 
principle that the King, with the consent of Parlia- 
ment, had the authority and power to "bind the colo- 
nies, and the people of America, in all cases whatso- 
ever.' ' 

If the colonies consented to this repeal with its 
clause, they would be affirming the very thing they 
were opposing in the Stamp Act. Such "sharp prac- 
tice" could not win. It was not the stamps they were 
opposing alone, nor the imposing of taxes. They re- 
pudiated the idea and the motive of the right to tax 
them without their consent, one of the ways of which 
was to make them buy stamps to legalize any of their 
business transactions. This explicitly proves that 
the Revolutionary War was not "an economic war," 
as some theorists endeavor to prove, but a war of 
principle, liberty and justice, as it claimed to be. 

The King was now asserting a right over the colo- 
nies which he did not have anywhere in his own coun- 
try. This was his will, his "divine right," as it were. 
If he tried to establish and enforce that will and the 



SOWING THE WIND 81 

colonies endeavored to establish and enforce their 
will against that will, then it would be, as had so 
often happened before in English history, a war of 
the King against the People. So it is often described 
in history as "the King's war" against the colonies. 
To such an extent did the people refuse to fight it 
that the Hanoverian King had to hire Hessian mer- 
cenaries. 

We have long since learned that it was not the peo- 
ple of England against the people of America, but 
the war of a foreign-minded King to retain a per- 
sonal mastery over a branch of the English people, 
a right lost forever among English-speaking people 
through the successful revolt of the American Colo- 
nies in the name of American liberty. 

The King through Parliament hastened to verify 
his right to tax the Colonies by various taxes against 
single articles. This was especially resented at Bos- 
ton where the taxes were most oppressive. The Gen- 
eral Court of Massachusetts became a hot-bed of agi- 
tation against those taxes. The excitement of every 
day increased. Violent collisions were of frequent 
occurrence between the authorities and the people. 
At last, it became public that two regiments were held 
at Halifax ready to be sent to Boston to quell the 
remonstrances there. The colonists looked upon 
these signs of coercion as nothing less than despo- 



82 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

tism. The two regiments soon arrived with seven 
war vessels. The commander reported that he was 
sure these " spirited measures" would soon quell all 
disturbances and restore order. 

But the colonists now had a greater grievance. 
They held town meetings and resolved that the King 
had no right to send troops into the colonies without 
their consent. They claimed that the charters of 
all the colonies were now broken by this act of the 
King in sending troops into their midst without their 
consent. It was many times worse than taxation 
without representation. It was a violation of their 
allegiance to Great Britain. 

The Boston selectmen refused to have anything to 
do with the soldiers. The council would not recog- 
nize that they had any rights in the town. Accord- 
ingly, the commander quartered them in the State- 
House and in Faneuil Hall. The public was enraged 
at the cannon planted around these buildings and 
against the sentinels that challenged the rights of 
free citizens to come and go. Besides, their religious 
ideas were equally outraged by the fife and drum on 
Sunday, with the oaths and loud commands of offi- 
cers, where heretofore all had been peace and quiet. 

Virginia was far away from these stirring scenes 
and news went slowly. However, Washington recog- 
nized the grave significance of it all. A letter writ- 



SOWING THE WIND 83 

ten April 5, 1769, by him to his friend George Mason, 
shows what he thought. 

"At a time," he wrote, "when our lordly masters 
in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less 
than the deprivation of American freedom, it seems 
highly necessary that something should be done to 
avert the stroke, and maintain the liberty which we 
have derived from our ancestors. " 

He continued by discussing what was the best way 
to do this necessary thing. He advised that the use 
of arms should be the last resource and resort. His 
moral view is expressed farther on in the letter where 
he says, as he discusses the effect on the colonists in 
the war cutting off their trade, "There will be a dif- 
ficulty attending it everywhere from clashing inter- 
ests, and selfish, designing men, ever attentive to 
their own gain, and watchful of every turn that can 
assist their lucrative views." 

This shows us that very far from all of the revo- 
lutionary people could be called heroes of principle 
and entitled to be regarded as the founders of Ameri- 
can freedom. Democracy had the usual percentage 
of sordid parasites, as well as its many noble martyrs 
and heroic champions. 

Still farther on in the same letter, he says, "I can 
see but one class of people, the merchants excepted, 
who will not, or ought not, to wish well to the 



84 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

scheme, — namely, they who live genteely and hospit- 
ably on clear estates. Such as these, were they not 
to consider the valuable object in view, and the good 
of others, might think it hard to be curtailed in their 
living and enjoyments." 

Now it must be taken into consideration that 
Washington not only belonged to the genteel free- 
holders to which he refers, but he was also one of the 
largest merchants who would lose heavily in any stop- 
page of trade with Great Britain. But we have 
clearly seen through all his military and public serv- 
ice, that principle, and not gain or comfort, was the 
vital motive of his conduct and his life. 



in. "soft words butter no parsnips' ' 



For several reasons, the Southern colonies fared 
much better than the Northern colonies, and were, 
therefore, not stirred to such feelings of violent oppo- 
sition. The spirit of the Puritans, their severe 
economy, rigid form of piety, and their hatred of 
Kings, animated the Northern people in private and 
in public. Their ancestors had been refugees from 
the tyranny of English Kings, and there was not that 
respect for England which would cause them to be 



SOWING THE WIND 85 

patient under bad treatment. Besides that, they had 
seen most of the arrogance and insolence of the Eng- 
lish officers during the French and Indian wars, and 
had suffered longest from the presence of war. The 
officers of the King came to the Northern colonies 
with the idea that nothing would serve the purpose 
but severity and coertion. On the contrary, the peo- 
ple of the Southern colonies were believed at the 
King's court to be vain and luxurious. They were 
represented as being easily pleased by showy parade. 
Accordingly, a court favorite, Lord Botetourt, was 
chosen to win the admiration of Virginia. The de- 
scendants of the Puritans were to be overawed into 
subjection by military force, the Cavaliers of Vir- 
ginia were to be overawed into compliance by aristo- 
cratic splendor. 

Lord Botetourt was supplied with a dazzling equip- 
ment. He arrived in Virginia with glittering pomp 
and circumstance. On the opening of the Virginia 
legislature, he arranged a brilliant procession, in 
which he was conspicuous in gorgeous uniform, rid- 
ing in a state-coach drawn by six milk-white horses. 
He opened the session of the Virginia legislature as 
if it were a royal parliament and he were the King. 
Then the ostentatious parade returned him to the 
governor's mansion. 

But to the amazement of Lord Botetourt, this 



86 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

grand display did not work. The House of Burg- 
esses drafted some drastic demands to be sent to the 
British King. At noon of the day after these resolu- 
tions were passed, the governor in dismay went in 
haste to the Capitol, and appeared before the as- 
sembly. 

"Mr. Speaker, and gentlemen of the House of 
Burgesses," he cried, "I have heard of your resolves, 
and auger, ill of their effects. You have made if my 
duty to dissolve you, and you are dissolved accord- 
ingly.' ' 

But his brain-storm had only the effect to cause 
them to be called to order by their Speaker, Paton 
Randolph, in another house. Washington brought 
forward the draft of an association pledged not to 
buy anything from Great Britain on which there 
was a tax. This could not be enacted into a law, be- - 
cause they were no longer a legislative body, but, as 
a voluntary pledge, it was just as effective. 

But, wonderful to relate, Lord Botetourt appeared 
to have a better ordered intelligence than most of the 
governors sent over from England. He saw at once 
the folly of his first ideas about the Southern colo- 
nies, and he set about at once to pacify them in more 
reasonable ways. He put away his royal show, ac- 
tually addressed himself to the grievances of the 
people, became a strong opponent to the taxes, did 



SOWING THE WIND 87 

what he could to have them repealed, and assured the 
Virginians that this would be speedily done. The 
people soon had full confidence in him, and the 
scenes of excitement so common in the Northern colo- 
nies were unknown in Virginia. 

But there was one thing after another of repres- 
sion and retaliation in the Northern colonies. Such 
was the opposition in the colonies and the unpopu- 
larity of it all among the ruling classes in England, 
that the King's Manager, the Duke of Grafton, re- 
signed and a favorite of the King, Lord North, took 
his place, as chief councillor in England. Now, the 
King gave up the fight for the taxes, but he still held 
to his right to tax the people as something that was 
none of their business. The tax was taken off of 
everything except tea. This one tax was kept up, 
though a very light one, merely as the King said, "to 
maintain the parliamentary right of taxation." 
Even the duty was taken off of tea, so that it was sold 
in America ninepence cheaper a pound than it could 
be bought in England. 

"Now," said the King, "if the colonists object to 
this, it proves that they are determined to rebel 
against our government." 

He could not conceive of such a thing as a principle 
against which they were opposed, and many a mind 
since his has been as blind to principle and as full- 



88 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

eyed toward the question of profit and loss. It is this 
indescribable thing that usually divides people on 
public affairs. It likewise defends the Makers of 
America against the historical interpretation that 
their revolution was for any such sordid origins as 
* ' economic necessity. ' ' 

There was strong opposition in parliament, not 
only against all such taxation but also against assert- 
ing the right of such taxation. Lord North, however, 
reflecting the will of King George, said, "The proper- 
est time to exert our right of taxation is when the 
right is refused. " 

So it is with all set wills. The colonists thought 
the same thing from an opposite point of view. It 
was an irresistible body meeting an immovable body. 
Something had to break. 

Lord North declared that "a total repeal can not 
be thought of, till America is prostrate at our feet." 
That is, the master determines not to hear the com- 
plaint of the slave until the slave's will is broken at 
his owner's feet. The wilderness-made minds with 
their self-made freedom were not built that way. 
The King's mind-evil could not be met by resistence, 
but, as it emerged into colonial wrongs, the only way 
to defeat them and save the freedom of moral law 
was through revolutionary war. The evil mind using 
coertion to enforce its slave-making wrongs went out 



SOWING THE WIND 89 

of the mental regions of non-resistence into the physi- 
cal regions of wrongs where nothing but force can 
save. 

Lord North's promise could have nothing to do 
with the case. The colonists had no idea of taking 
such a position as being prostrate at the feet of the 
King. They had felt the freedom that is born of the 
wilderness and that freedom was life. It was Ameri- 
can and it remains the hope of the world. 



CHAPTER X 
ANTAGONISMS AND HOSTILITIES 



I. BLAZING THE WAY TO WAR 

Nothing illustrates better the conditions of mind 
in the long, bitter turmoil, than an incident, infuriat- 
ing the people of Boston, which happened March 5, 
1770. A number of young men and boys, probably 
fifty or sixty of them, gathered on Boston Common to 
throw snowballs. A company of militia being near, 
offered too tempting an object, and they began to 
pelt the soldiers. The claim was that some of the 
snowballs contained rocks, though no one was ser- 
iously injured. The soldiers charged the bunch of 
boys, not with weapons, but with fists, and put them 
to flight. This was not enough for the victors, and 
so the soldiers pursued the flying enemy. Seeing this, 
some citizens rang alarm bells. A mob assembled 
around the custom house and was ordered away. The 
troops were assailed with clubs and stones. They 

90 



ANTAGONISMS AND HOSTILITIES 91 

fired into the crowd and killed four, wounding sev- 
eral others* The town was aflame with wrath and the 
troops were removed to the barracks outside to pre- 
vent further bloodshed. Though it was hardly disas- 
trous enough to deserve the name, " Boston Massa- 
cre, ' ' yet there was no doubt that nothing in the early 
days of the revolution, had more effect in setting the 
minds of the people against England. It was a sign 
of the times, and was like a little word that may some- 
times mean as much as a whole discourse, especially 
when a social group of minds is unified in one interest 
of opposition or defense. 

It was during these stirring times in the North 
that Washington was prevailed on by the Colonial 
government to visit the Indian tribes on the Ohio for 
a better understanding of the right of each side under 
the existing treaties. His journey to the site of old 
Fort Duquesne, renamed Fort Pitt, where Pittsburg 
now stands, was full of romantic memories, and was 
met with many assurances of friendship among the 
now reconciled Indians. 

Through the many interesting scenes, still some- 
what perilous from the uncertainty of Indian friend- 
ship, he arrived at the mouth of the Great Kanawha. 
It was at this place where Washington was visited 
by an old Indian Sachem, who approached him with 
great reverence as if he were in the presence of a 



92 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

very superior being. Through the interpreter, the 
Indian chief said that he had heard of his coming to 
their country and had come a long way to see him. 
He explained his unusual interest by saying that he 
had led his warriors against the English under Gen- 
eral Braddock. It was he with his band of braves who 
had lain in ambush on the banks of the Monongahela 
and had done such deadly slaughter to the English 
troops. But his reverence for Washington had a spe- 
cial reason. The Indians saw Washington as one 
of the boldest, riding fearlessly over the battlefield, 
carrying the General's orders. The chief and his 
warriors had singled Washington out as one they 
must kill. They had tried their best but their bul- 
lets never found him. At last they would not waste 
their bullets on him because he had a charmed life, 
under the protection of the Great Spirit. And who 
knows about these things ! Everything may not be of 
inevitable physical order! The simple Indian may 
have been nearer the truth than would be any psycho- 
logical or scientific explanation. 

The Indians very generally believed that the Great 
Spirit exercised power over bullets, and, in many in- 
stances, faced death fearlessly in the faith raised by 
their "medicen-man" that the enemy's bullets could 
not harm them. Religious assurance of some kind is 
the consolation of every mind. 



ANTAGONISMS AND HOSTILITIES 93 

II. THE DOUBLE-QUICK MARCH TO REVOLUTION 

That Washington could be righteously indignant 
and unmercifully sarcastic may be inferred from a 
letter written to Colonel George Muse, who had been 
Washington's military instructor at Mount Vernon 
in 1751. Colonel Muse had been accused of coward- 
ice in the campaign with Washington to the Ohio in 
1754, and Washington had with difficulty obtained 
for him a grant of ten thousand acres of land in the 
Ohio territory, as was given to the other officers in 
the expedition. Colonel Muse was dissatisfied and 
so wrote a letter to Washington, the contents of 
which we can surmise only from Washington's reply. 

"Sir, — Your impudent letter was delivered to me 
yesterday," he wrote. "As I am not accustomed to 
receive such from any man, nor would have taken the 
same language from you personally, without letting 
you feel some marks of my resentment, I advise you 
to be cautious in writing me a second of the same 
tenor; though I understand you were drunk when 
you did it, yet give me leave to tell you that drunken- 
ness is no excuse for rudeness." 

After describing what had been done for the un- 
grateful man, Washington closed his letter by say- 



94 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

ing, "All my concern is that I ever engaged myself in 
behalf of so ungrateful and dirty a fellow as you 
are." 

Meanwhile, the King of England was searching for 
means to wear down the opposition of the colonies to 
his assertion of the right to personal rule over them 
through Parliament. So complete was the refusal of 
the colonies to use tea, that the warehouses of the 
East India Company were full of tea, and their profit 
dwindled. A happy suggestion was made to the 
King. Let the tea go free duty, and so cheap on ac- 
count of the surplus, to the colonies, that they will 
buy it and thus not only relieve the warehouses but 
also establish the principle of the right to tax articles 
sold in the colonies. The proposition was put into 
effect. The contents of the warehouses were emptied 
into ships and sent to various ports in the American 
colonies. The King depended on human nature as 
he understood it to be. Like many another ruler who 
believes he can rule by juggling ideas and manipu- 
lating minds, he deceived himself. The people were 
starving for tea! They had long lived without tea 
like foolish children who would play no way but their 
own way. Now, they would tumble over one another 
to get the long desired tea. There would be a car- 
nival carousal of tea drinking in America! But 
somehow the thing didn't work. There was still a 



ANTAGONISMS AND HOSTILITIES 95 



wonderful perverseness in the half -civilized subjects 
of the King in the American wilderness. They 
seemed suddenly to be all alike. No doubt there were 
many who would gladly have profited by the King's 
contempt for principle, but profit was timid and 
principle was bold. 

New York and Philadelphia turned the ships 
around and ordered them to set sails at once for Eng- 
land. In Charleston they stored the tea in cellars 
where it remained untouched until it was ruined. In 
Boston, upon which the King's anger was centered, 
as the cause of all the strife, the conflict of wills was 
more desperate. The captains found that they could 
not unload the tea and when they tried to get clear- 
ance papers to leave the harbor, they were refused. 
They could not come in nor go out. But this meant, 
as the people soon saw, that the tea was to be held 
there on the ships until the soldiers could be used 
to enforce the sale of tea, and thus coerce the people 
into acknowledging the claims of the King "to rule 
and reign over them," according to his will. 

The two sides had now "chosen up," as it were, and 
had begun to climb the steps to war. 

To forestall the landing of the tea under cover of 
the soldiers, a company of Boston people assembled 
on the night of December 18, 1773, disguised them- 
selves as Indians, boarded the ships, broke open all 



96 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

the chests of tea, and emptied the object of all the 
trouble into the sea. 

There was no excitement apparent in doing this. 
"When all the tea in Boston harbor was floating on the 
waves, the make-believe Indians returned peacefully 
to their homes, and went to bed, doubtless sleeping 
"the sleep of the righteous." 

All the wrath of the King and his associates were 
now centered definitely on Boston. In swift retalia- 
tion the Boston Port Bill was passed by Parliament, 
closing the harbor and transferring the capital to 
Salem. A little later, the charter of the province was 
changed so as to bring the colony directly under the 
control of the English government. Then a Riot Bill 
was passed so that any person, if indicted for a high 
crime, could be sent to England for trial. First, it 
was taxing without representation, then it was 
quartering soldiers upon them without their consent, 
and now it was a violation of the right to be tried by a 
jury of their peers. The intolerable had climbed the 
swift steps of war to the impossible. American free- 
dom could not thus be made the puppet of any king. 

It was historical evidence how "one thing brings 
on another" in a quarrel of wills, and how force can 
not control rebellious minds. Brain-storms of feel- 
ing, whether in child or mob, are not to be stilled by 
retaliation or despotism. 



ANTAGONISMS AND HOSTILITIES 97 



III. VIOLENCE AND FLATTERY AS METHODS OF MASTERY 

In wide contrast to the use of force for Massachu- 
setts, was the plan being carried out to pacify 
Virginia. Lord Dunmore was sent as governor to 
Virginia with the same idea of princely show as char- 
acterized Lord Botetourt. He established a court 
circle with almost kingly pomp and splendor. He 
began the great game of playing to the aristocracy of 
the " Ancient Dominion." All the wealthy families 
were entertained at the Governor's mansion in gor- 
geous style. Washington was among the first to be 
so honored and entertained. It looked as if all Vir- 
ginia was at the feet of the royal governor, raptur- 
ously " eating out of his hand." 

The House of Burgesses convened and everything 
seemed to be going the King's way, when a letter was 
received stating what had been done to Boston. Then 
things were different. Principle, freedom and sym- 
pathy joined hands, and court-flattery went to the 
scrap-heap. 

The letter was read before the assembly. At once 
all other business was thrown aside. A protest was 
adopted to be sent to England, and a resolution was 
passed setting apart the first day of June (the day 






98 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

on which the port of Boston was to be closed), as a 
day of fasting, prayer and humiliation, in which all 
minds should be united firmly opposing the contem- 
plated suppression of American liberties, and to 
avert the evils of civil war. 

Repeating what his predecessor, Lord Botetourt, 
had done and seeming to learn nothing from that 
really well-intentioned man's experiences, Lord Dun- 
more, the next morning ordered the House of Burg- 
esses to appear before him in the council chamber. 

"Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the House of 
Burgesses," he began, "I hold in my hand a paper, 
published by order of your House, conceived in such 
terms, as reflect highly upon his Majesty and the 
Parliament of Great Britain, which makes it neces- 
sary for me to dissolve you, and you are dissolved ac- 
cordingly." 

But as before, the assembly did not disperse. It 
gathered in a hall where the members unanimously 
passed the most drastic resolutions of defiance, and, 
what was most significant of all, ordered the Commit- 
tee of Correspondence to communicate with the va- 
rious colonies on the expediency of appointing depu- 
ties to meet annually in a General Congress of Brit- 
ish America. 

Every word and deed of Washington, and there is 
abundance of them on record, shows that he was in 




■Washington and His Cabinet. 



ANTAGONISMS AND HOSTILITIES 99 

full and hearty sympathy with all these sentiments 
against Great Britain, though he and Lord Dunmore, 
and their families, mingled frequently in a social 
way. Washington's mind was not one to be swayed 
by particular instances of pride or profit. The goal 
before him was never obscured by side issues or tem- 
porary interests. 



CHAPTER XI 
GREAT MINDS IN THE GREAT STORM 



I. SUPPRESSING AMERICANS 

General Thomas Gage was, in the approaching 
crisis, made military commander at Massachusetts, 
as the man most experienced and able to enforce the 
Parliamentary laws. He had led the advance guard 
at Braddock's defeat, had married an American girl 
and had lived long in the colonies. It would seem 
that he ought to have known well the character of 
the colonists. But, he had already advised the King 
that, "The Americans will be lions only as long as 
the English are lambs.' ' 

The idea still prevails that there is a lamb-coward 
always in the presence of a lion-hero. General Gage 
promised that he would enforce all laws if given five 
regiments. 

As suggested by the Virginia Assembly, "a solemn 
league and covenant" was circulated throughout the 

100 



GEE AT MINDS IN THE GREAT STORM 101 

provinces, in which the subscribers bound themselves 
to cease from all intercourse with Great Britain, 
from the month of August, until Massachusetts 
should regain its chartered rights. Furthermore, it 
was an iron-clad use of the boycott and lock-out. It 
pledged the signers that they would have no dealings 
with any one who refused to enter into that compact. 
This meant that home-principle had to have a method 
against home-profit. Capital was timidly cowering 
between what seemed to it as "the devil and the deep 
sea." 

General Gage declared in a proclamation that the 
document was illegal and the signers traitors. He 
planted a force of infantry and artillery on the Bos- 
ton Common and prepared himself to enforce the 
edict of the British Parliament and his own judg- 
ment. Thus, another high step was taken in the 
climb to war. The great drama was developing scene 
by scene that was to bring forth Washington as a 
warrior, president and statesman, the titular 
"Father of his Country." 

As we proceed on our historic journey, needed to 
understand the making of Washington, and his mean- 
ing for Americans, we are now approaching his first 
appearance as a leader. This comes to pass after he 
decides that every resource and means have been 
used in vain for justice toward the colonies. 



102 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

On July 18, 1773, a meeting of Fairfax County was 
held, with Washington as the presiding officer, to dis- 
cuss their attitude toward the English government 
and its methods toward the colonies. This general 
meeting of protest was held immediately after Wash- 
ington's return from the session of the House of 
Burgesses at Williamsburg. 

As Chairman of the committee on resolutions, he 
had probably much, if not all, to do with the language 
used, and it is significant, that the resolutions ended 
with a phrase which contained the threat of inde- 
pendence through war. They called on the King to 
reflect that "from our Sovereign there can be but one 
appeal. ' ' This shows the idea that was in Washing- 
ton 's mind for he had already decided, as shown by 
his letters, that the King could not be changed, and, 
therefore, that the only appeal was to be made to the 
higher authority of right through the might of war. 

Washington was now entering heart and soul into 
the great controversy. He was chosen as a delegate 
from the county to the colony meeting at Williams- 
burg on the first of August, 1773. 

The Virginia delegates assembled at the capital 
as planned. Washington presented the resolution 
adopted by his county and made a fervid address in 
its support. It is said he declared himself ready to 
raise a thousand men at his own expense, and march 



GREAT MINDS IN THE GREAT STORM 103 

at their head to the relief of Boston. It is safe to say 
that if Washington and Patrick Henry could have 
lived through to 1861, there would have been no Civil 
War, or even if the Spirit of Washington and Henry 
could have lived in the hearts of the people. 

The Virginia convention adopted resolutions based 
on the Fairfax resolution, and Washington with six 
others, destined to become famous in American his- 
tory, were appointed delegates to the General Con- 
gress, that was to meet in Philadelphia. 

The high-handed measures against Boston had 
ruined that town. The rich became poor and the poor 
were at the verge of starvation, but there was no out- 
cry. The silent misery and calm determination were 
a puzzle to the General who could not subdue such 
opposition with cannon. The people went in crowds 
to hear their speakers placidly arguing the condi- 
tions. There was no excuse to order the people to 
disperse, so that Gage found it necessary to have a 
law passed that the people should not assemble to 
discuss government affairs. But the whole problem 
had now taken on a larger form. On September 5, 
1774, delegates from all the colonies, excepting Geor- 
gia, met in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia. 

Patrick Henry and Edmund Pendleton came on 
to Mount Vernon, and from there the three giants of 
moral rights and human liberty rode on together to 



104 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

the meeting, affecting so deeply the eternal meaning 
of America. 

When the question arose in the meeting concerning 
the voting of delegates, some colonies having more 
than others, Patrick Henry, with his fiery zeal, de- 
clared any idea of sectional distinctions or local in- 
terests to be absurd. 

"All America," he cried, "is thrown into one mass. 
Where are your landmarks — your boundaries of colo- 
nies? They are all thrown down. The distinction 
between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, 
and New Englanders, are no more. I am not a Vir- 
ginian but an American." 

What a great pity that eighty-six years later, the 
patriotism of Patrick Henry could not have been 
felt, and the one great horror of American history 
would then never have occurred. 



II. THE BUSINESS OF GETTING READY 

The first General Assembly in the history of the 
New World came together in great solemnity. They 
felt that it should be opened by some religious serv- 
ice, and yet, they feared to introduce religious antag- 



GREAT MINDS IN THE GREAT STORM 105 

onism, for it was a period when religious controver- 
sies were often more extreme and bitter than any 
political controversies. 

Then Samuel Adams of reverend fame arose and 
said, "I shall willingly join in prayer with any gen- 
tleman of piety and virtue, whatever might be his 
cloth, provided he is a friend of his country. ' ' 

Samuel Adams was a very rigorous Congregation- 
alist, but religion with him had no claims that did not 
include justice and patriotism. He nominated the 
Reverend Mr. Duche of Philadelphia, who was an 
Episcopalian, to open the session with prayer. 

The reverend Duche appeared in his canonicals at- 
tended by his clerk. He read the morning service of 
the Episcopal church. The Psalter for that day of 
the month, the seventh, included the thirty-fifth 
Psalm. The central idea of the Psalm was that of the 
Assembly. 

" Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive 
with me; fight against them that fight against me. 
Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my 
help. Draw out, also, the spear, and stop the way of 
them that persecute me." 

It is said that when the assembly was organized 
and ready for the introduction of their momentous 
business, that a long, deep, death-like silence fell 
upon them. Every one hesitated to begin. The sense 



106 TEE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

of inaction was becoming oppressive when Patrick 
Henry arose. Such a great occasion was suitable to 
his eloquence and when he sat down amidst the mur- 
murs of astonishment and the shouts of applause, 
he was conceded to be the greatest orator in America. 

This history-making convention had fifty-one dele- 
gates and it remained in session fifty-one days. The 
meetings were held in secret, and it is now unknown 
the part that Washington took in it, but, when Pat- 
rick Henry returned home, he was asked who was 
the most powerful councillor in the convention, and 
he unhesitatingly said, " Washington. " 

That Washington foresaw the course of events may 
be readily gathered from a letter he wrote at this time 
to a very close friend, Captain Robert Mackenzie, 
who had severely criticised the colonies from the 
British point of view. Like too many who are now 
charged with the destiny of the great American re- 
public by their votes, Mackenzie could reason only 
on the visible results, and could not give any atten- 
tion to the causes of the events. He had no spiritual 
valuation. He could reason only from material in- 
terests. Washington closed a very emphatic and rad- 
ical letter to him with the warning and prophecy, 
"and give me leave to add, as my opinion, that more 
blood will be spilled on this occasion, if the ministry 
are determined to push matters to extremity, than 



GREAT MINDS IN THE GREAT STORM 107 

history has ever yet furnished instances of in the 
annals of North America. " 

England had been what might be termed good to 
the Southern colonies. As for harsh measures, the 
worst from a political point of view was in dissolv- 
ing the Virginia legislatures. The Southern Colonies 
were under the business management of descendants 
from the royalist cavaliers who had been driven from 
England by the forefathers of the descendants mak- 
ing up the colonies of New England. There was 
thus an inherited tradition of antagonism, which 
many well-meaning patriots assume as their basis of 
justice and judgment. Political welfare must be es- 
timated from present conditions. Avengers of the 
ancient wrong want to punish history rather than 
make history. They assume that it is better to begin 
with what was than with what is. But in the com- 
mon need, all such differences were forgotten. The 
differences were remembered only by the great 
grand-children of the revolutionary heroes. 

The Northern Colonies and the Southern Colonies 
were, true enough, antagonistic in their origin, en- 
tirely opposite in the social differences between the 
severe Puritan and the aristocratic Cavalier, and 
worse than all, they were antagonistic in their re- 
ligion, the North being many kinds of dissenters, and 
the South, in its governing classes, being Episcopal- 



108 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

ian. Their social, religious and material interests 
never had been the same, and they had little in com- 
mon even in the French and Indian wars. This out- 
line contrast is given to show how the question, espe- 
cially for the South, was not material profit or of 
opposition to oppression from force, but was the ex- 
pression of an American Ideal uniting all minds, as 
a meaning for the equal rights of all in our humanity. 
It shows that there is an ideal of human rights that 
has the allegiance of human hearts above all consid- 
erations of flattery, or coertion, or for any of the 
thousands of considerations that may cause an in- 
dividual judgment or fix the will. There may be 
amazing differences in personal and party interests, 
but there can be none, even in the varieties of intel- 
ligence or conditions, when it comes to the rights to 
freedom in the views of genuine Americans. Only 
partisans attack the motives of persons who are try- 
ing to advance human liberty and peace according to 
the duties and rights of civilization. By such signs 
shall ye know them and beware. They are not Amer- 
icans and their moral deformity is the peril of 
America. The real idealist lives the vision of moral 
order, not only for his group, but for all the world. 
The moral law for each and all is our idealism of the 
universe. 



GREAT MINDS IN THE GREAT STORM 109 

III. MANY MEN OF MANY MINDS 

England could not manage its American colonial 
interests because the government had no ideal of the 
colonies beyond that of a commercial business, and 
the colonies could not handle the interests of Eng- 
land in America because each colony was a separate 
organization having political interests together in 
common only in the British Parliament. On that ac- 
count they never felt together, except as their mutual 
interest in Parliament was injured. Notice this 
fundamental origin of social union, and see how it 
had to be wrangled over from the close of the Revo- 
lutionary War in 1781, to the adoption of the Con- 
stitution, and the election of a president under it in 
1789. And even then, a fundamental origin for so- 
cial interests, and, therefore, of patriotism, was not 
achieved until a frightful civil war closed the struggle 
for separate units of interest, as independent sov- 
ereignities, in 1865. 

Mr. Curtis, an English philosopher-historian, writ- 
ing about one hundred and fifty years after the begin- 
ning of these world-making origins of the American 
ideal, quotes Doyle's history referring to the revolt 
of the colonies, in which it is said, "If the Southern 
Colonies were to take their full share of interest in 



110 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

the struggle, it was clear that it must not be left to a 
New England army under a New England general. 
But we may be sure that the choice, desirable in it- 
self, of a Southern general, was made much easier 
by the presence of a Southern candidate so specially 
fitted for the post as Washington. Not indeed that 
his fitness was or could be as yet fully revealed. In- 
telligence and public spirit, untiring energy and in- 
dustry, a fair share of technical skill, and courage 
almost dangerous in its recklessness, — all these were 
no doubt perceived by those who appointed Wash- 
ington. What they could not have foreseen was the 
patience with which a man of clear vision, heroic 
bravery, and intense directness, bore with fools and 
laggards, and intrigues; and the disinterested self- 
devotion which called out all that was noblest in the 
national character, which shamed selfish men into a 
semblance of union. Still less could it have been fore- 
seen that, in choosing a military chief, Congress was 
training up for the country that civil leader, without 
whose aid an effective constitution would scarcely 
have been attained. ' ' 



CHAPTER XII 

THE HOUSE LONG DIVIDED AGAINST 
ITSELF 



I. UNPATRIOTIC CONFUSION OF OPINIONS AND 
INTERESTS 

In order to appreciate the difficulties which Wash- 
ington had to overcome, and therefore to make any 
just estimate of his character, his patriotism and his 
services in the cause of political liberty, the condi- 
tions in which he worked must be understood. It 
must not be assumed that he had a united country, a 
solid backing, and that there was unanimous patriot- 
ism sustaining him. To do so would not only be un- 
true, but it would belittle the almost superhuman 
task which gave birth to American government, and 
made possible the final organization through Abra- 
ham Lincoln of a land of the free, able to sustain its 
freedom against all the struggling masteries of the 
world. To suppose that Washington did his revolu- 

111 



112 THE 'STORY OF WASHINGTON 

tionaiy work in the midst of reliable patriotism is 
as erroneous as to suppose that Lincoln did his na- 
tion-saving task in the midst of a unanimous North. 

There was no such thing as patriotism at the time 
of Washington, according to the usual definition of 
patriotism, because there w r as no geographical terri- 
tory holding a united people, for whom or for which 
to feel a national patriotism. 

American patriotism, therefore, began in the pa- 
triotism for human rights, not thus making "a man 
without a country,' ' as patriotism for humanity has 
been sometimes denned alike by extreme pacifists and 
extreme militarists, but in the fact that American 
democracy and humanity are synonymous terms, in 
all they can mean for the rights of man. 

There was then no political country to be patriotic 
for. There were only colonies. Patrick Henry's 
cry, so pathetic in its divine need, and so little true 
for his fellows as shown in 1861, "I am not a Virgin- 
ian, I am an American," rang through the congress 
at Philadelphia with the thrill of a new vision of 
human faith, but it was almost a century, through an 
age of desperate reconstruction, before it could be 
even approximately called true; before American 
democracy and humanity could face the warring 
world, the King-made world, with one meaning, one 
service and one moral law. 



HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 113 



John Adams, of indisputable authority, tells us 
that more than a third of the property owners and 
men of affairs, were opposed to the revolution 
throughout the war. 

Lecky, in his history of England, declares that an 
examination of the correspondence of the revolution 
at any period shows that, "in the middle colonies at 
least, those who really desired to throw off the Eng- 
lish rule were a small and not very respectable 
minority. The great mass were indifferent, half- 
hearted, engrossed with their private interests or oc- 
cupations, prepared to risk nothing till they could 
clearly foresee the issue of the contest. In almost 
every part of the States— even in New England itself 
— there were large bodies of devoted royalists." 

After the war more than a hundred thousand, it is 
estimated, of irreconciliable royalists were expelled 
from the colonies. 

When General Gage evacuated Boston, more than 
a thousand royalists from that immediate territory 
went with him to Halifax, Nova Scotia, so that our 
American grandmothers, even a hundred years later, 
when exasperated, would exclaim against their tor- 
mentor, with much of the ancient vehemence, "You 
go to Halifax !" 

If we want to appreciate Washington and to 
understand his wonderful service for mankind, we 



114 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

must understand the difficulties and obstacles he had 
to overcome. The " Spirit of '76" belonged at first 
to only a few inspired souls, who had a wonderful 
vision of human rights for a new world. Right was 
might with them and their might-right won the 
great cause as the immortal " Spirit of '76." 

General Washington's description of the condi- 
tions are vividly portrayed in a letter to Joseph Reed, 
from Cambridge, dated November 28, 1775 : 

"Such a dearth of public spirit, and such a want 
of virtue, such stock jobbing and such fertility in all 
the low arts to obtain advantages of one kind or an- 
other in this great change of military arrangement I 
never saw before, and pray God's mercy that I may 
never be witness to again. What will be the end of 
these manoeuvers is beyond my scan. I tremble at 
the prospect. We have been till this time enlisting 
about three thousand five hundred men. To engage 
these I have been obliged to allow furloughs as far as 
fifty men to a regiment, and the officers, I am per- 
suaded, indulge as many more. The Connecticut 
troops will not be prevailed upon to stay longer than 
their term, saving those who have enlisted for the 
next campaign and are mostly on a furlough; and 
such a mercenary spirit pervades the whole that I 
should not be at all surprised at any disaster that 
may happen. In short after the last of this month 



HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 115 

our lines will be so weakened that the Minute Men 
and Militia must be called in for their defense ; and 
these being under no kind of government themselves, 
will destroy the little subordination I have been la- 
boring to establish, and run me into one evil whilst I 
am endeavoring to avoid another ; but the less must 
be chosen. Could I have foreseen what I have ex- 
perienced, and am likely to experience, no consider- 
ation upon earth would have induced me to accept 
the command." 

At the meeting of the colonies in congress at Phil- 
adelphia in 1774, George the Third saw that it was a 
conquest of wills and he exclaimed, "The die is cast, 
the colonies must either submit or triumph." But 
even when the British government was sending Hes- 
sian mercenaries over against the colonies, a thing 
regarded as a supreme outrage by those opposed to 
England, it was almost impossible to get together 
enough American patriotism to adopt a declaration 
of independence. 

John Adams says that a large section of Congress 
regarded such a declaration with both terror and dis- 
gust. To those who have believed that a unanimous 
patriotism made only a little severe fighting neces- 
sary, backed by some clever generalship, there can 
be no proper appreciation of the great American 
achievement. 



116 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

Then, as now, the prosperous did not want their 
prosperity disturbed by any change. They didn't 
want to lose their business, not to speak of their lives, 
by going into an army. But there had been a genera- 
tion of people pouring into the colonies from the 
poverty-devastations of English misgovernment in 
Scotland and Ireland. They had never had any 
chance to protest against their wrongs in the old 
country, but fortune, or fate, or Providence, had ban- 
ished them across the ocean directly into an oppor- 
tunity to express their sentiments with guns, and 
they took the opportunity. They flocked to the re- 
cruiting stations of Washington's army. 

But so unsafe were business transactions with the 
party fighting Great Britain that the revolution was 
coming to the gates of despair because of the impos- 
sibility of getting military supplies and army equip- 
ments. There was fast growing a vision of collapse 
unless there was received the encouraging help of a 
foreign power. France in almost unceasing war with 
England was the only hope, and France could have 
no interest unless the colonies were fighting for 
separation from England, instead of against a tax on 
tea, as it bore the appearance, at the beginning, from 
a foreign point of view. France wanted to know 
what the colonies were fighting for. France wanted 
a bill of particulars. This brought American inter- 



HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 117 



ests to a crisis. France had no interest in a mere 
family fuss. The French government could have no 
interest unless it was for something that lessened the 
power of England. 

Under the early troubles, a peace party among the 
business interests was fast coming into power. 
Against this the commoners were aflame with the pa- 
triotic pamphlets of Thomas Paine and Thomas Jef- 
ferson, the eloquence of Patrick Henry, the states- 
manship of John Adams, and the work of the power- 
ful-minded few who saw the sublime vision of Ameri- 
can freedom. At last they were enabled to pass the 
Declaration of Independence, and France began, at 
first secretly and then openly, to give encouragement 
through money-loans, supplies, and volunteers. Bur- 
goyne's surrender in October, 1777, showed that 
America could be successful with France's help, and 
early in the next year France recognized the inde- 
pendence of the colonies. They soon made the cause 
of America their own, and sent over not only neces- 
sary supplies but soldiers and ships. Known bud- 
gets of expenses, used in aid of the Colonies, exceed 
$500,000,000, not a cent of which was ever returned 
or asked for. Though there was the political interest 
to humble England, yet France was at heart a pro- 
found lover of human freedom and political liberty. 
Despite the implacable enemies of republican govern- 



118 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

ment in Europe, France has successfully kept the 
dead-lines across which "they shall not pass." The 
moral debt which human liberty owes to Prance can 
never be paid except as it is paid to humanity, and, 
to that social justice, is dedicated the meaning of 
America. 



II. SOMETIMES TOO LATE TO ME1STD 

The English parliament, becoming suddenly 
aware of the growing power in the American sub- 
jects, now conceded every right asked for by the col- 
onists, and enacted those rights into law. But it 
was too late. The middle-class mass of property own- 
ers and business men began to see the vision of an 
American republic and the tide swelled toward suc- 
cess. As the cutting off of supplies from the colo- 
nies had been the chief cause of American weakness, 
England tried to prevent supplies being sent to 
America, with the result that Denmark, Sweden, 
Russia and Holland declared an armed neutrality 
to enforce their right to sell military supplies to 
America. The dispute led to a war with Holland 
in 1780, so that by the close of that year Great Brit- 
ain had not a friend on earth and was confronted 



HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 119 

by the united armies and navies of France, Spain, 
Holland and America. At the same time there was 
rebellion in India against the English rule, insurrec- 
tions in Ireland, and so deep the discontent in Eng- 
land itself that a London mob was able for several 
days to make itself master of the city. The English 
lost control of the sea before the close of 1780, and 
on October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered his 
army to Washington, from which historic hour a 
world-champion of the rights of man over the divine 
rights of kings was born in the Western world. 

The difficulties which Washington had encoun- 
tered and overcome in Virginia previous to the 
French and Indian war were in full exercise 
throughout New England at the opening of the Revo- 
lutionary War. They could act together in small, 
free groups for a particular object of their will, but 
to obey superior officers and to sacrifice their own 
private judgment to higher authority, which was so 
necessary in war and such a war as this, was utterly 
repugnant to their dispositions. That subserviency 
to authority was the very reason they were oppos- 
ing the idea of taxation without representation, and 
why should they be required to do the very thing 
they were fighting against! That quandary and 
query has been the puzzle of every mind unable to 
see the vision of means necessary to future results. 



120 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

It is the blindness always of the fanatical pacifist 
who would sacrifice nothing for peace, and of the 
non-resistent doctrine that right and moral law have 
no need for material might in a material world. 

The colonists had never known of anything but 
local patriotism. They seemed to be unable to dis- 
tinguish between English king-made authority and 
American people-made authority, notwithstanding 
how much had be^en discussed the relations of repre- 
sentation and taxation. That difficulty has always 
existed concerning American militarism. It almost 
defeated Lincoln during the Civil War. It almost 
delivered the Union to Secession. If democratic 
militarism cannot be different from dynastic mili- 
tarism, then American freedom and human liberty 
will be lost in the next American or world war. 

The colonist would fight with the heroism he dis- 
played in Indian warfare, but when the enemy was 
driven away from his neighborhood, it was the duty 
of the next neighborhood to take care of itself. Be- 
sides, the New Englander with a home had the same 
idea as the Virginian soldier twenty years before, 
and this was that, when he wanted to go home, why 
shouldn't he ! He was not a deserter, and in no sense 
a coward, but the discipline of army service was mere 
enslavement and any compulsion was despotism. To 
understand the making up of an efficient army under 



HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 121 

such circumstances is the only measure to estimate 
the greatness of Washington and the debt to him of 
the liberty-loving world. 

Curtis, in his history of American Commonwealth, 
says, " Washington overcame these difficulties by 
dint of a patience and a selflessness almost without 
parallel in history, which gradually communicated 
itself to his fellow countrymen. In seven years he 
created a continental army which ended the war at 
Yorktown." 



III. SELECTING THE LEADER OF LIBERTY FOR AMERICA 

Washington had to write many letters, endeavor- 
ing to spur up the really patriotic leaders to con- 
sistent work for the cause. In his letter to Joseph 
Reed he was almost in despair over the indifference 
of people from whom he expected the most patriotic 
service. 

"It grieves me," he wrote, "to see so little of that 
patriotic spirit which I was taught to believe char- 
acteristic of this people. " But this did not mean 
that the so-called "spirit of '76" was not strong 
among them. Washington needed so much of the 
patriotic spirit that a little would not be any, and, 
to half -heal the wounds of a friend, was not very 



122 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

friendly to the cause, nor a sufficient friendship 
toward the needs of Washington's work for America. 

Ten years later, when Washington had matured, 
through the mind-making experiences of revolution- 
ary times, he wrote to John Jay, saying, " Experi- 
ence has taught us that men will not adopt and carry 
into execution measures the best calculated for their 
own good without the intervention of coercive 
power." This meant that human society requires 
law, and the right of law is devoid of appreciation 
or application unless it is clothed with the might to 
keep its forms and values true. 

Lecky says, "The common saying that you cannot 
make people virtuous by law is a dangerous half- 
truth. The virtue innate in a people may be utterly 
destroyed by bad institutions, for 'the virtue,' as Jay 
wrote to Washington, 'like the other resources of a 
country, can only be drawn to a point by strong cir- 
cumstances ably managed, or strong governments 
ably administered.' " 

When it came to a question of who should be com- 
mander-in-chief of all the armies, the disruptions 
and jealousies of the sections seemed dangerously 
near wrecking any united action, which obviously 
must be fatal to any independence more than they 
then had from Great Britain. The Southern lead- 
ers were unanimous for Washington, and, with the 



HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 123 

efficiency of shrewd politicians, supported measures 
largely according to the pressure they brought to 
bear in the cause of having Washington for the com- 
mander-in-chief. But this support did not bring to- 
gether any antagonism, because it was not made by 
any faction of admirers or supporters. Washington 
himself, though present, refused to lend any aid to 
the presentation of his ow T n name. 

It was John Adams, the whole-souled patriot 
from Massachusetts who was the leader in advocat- 
ing the selection of Washington. In his diary, dur- 
ing these consequential times, Adams wrote, "I had 
no hesitation to declare that I had but one gentleman 
in my mind for that important command, and that 
was a gentleman from Virginia, who was among us, 
and very well known to us ; a gentleman whose skilled 
experience as an officer, whose independent fortune, 
great talents, and excellent universal character 
would command the approbation of all America, and 
unite the cordial exertions of all the colonies better 
than any other person in the Union. " 

There were many men who were able leaders, and 
who had already made great sacrifices in the cause 
of liberty, who believed with their friends that they 
were entitled to be selected for the head of the Army. 
Nevertheless, when the nomination was made, the 
election by ballot was unanimous for Washington. 



124 TEE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

The salary of Commander-in-Chief had been set 
at five hundred dollars a month, but Washington in 
his address of acceptance, while declaring that no sal- 
ary could have been made large enough to tempt him 
from the comforts and business interests of his home, 
said he would accept no salary, but would keep an ex- 
act account of his expenses, which they would no 
doubt refund to him. 

" There is something charming to me," said John 
Adams, who became the second president of the 
United States, when writing at the time to a friend, 
"in the conduct of Washington, a gentleman of one 
of the first fortunes upon the continent, leaving his 
delicious retirement, his family and friends, sacri- 
ficing his ease, and hazarding all in the cause of his 
country. His views are noble and disinterested." 

Washington now wrote to his half-brother, Augus- 
tine Washington, a characteristic letter. 

"I am now to bid adieu to you, and to every kind 
of domestic ease for a while. I am embarked on a 
wide ocean, boundless in its prospect, and in which, 
perhaps, no safe harbor is to be found. I have been 
called upon by the unanimous voice of the Colonies to 
take command of the Continental army ; an honor I 
neither sought after nor desired, as I am thoroughly 
convinced it requires great abilities, and much more 
experience than I am master of." 



HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 125 

But he added his belief that the Divine Provi- 
dence, which had called him into such a dangerous 
duty, was wisely ordering the affairs of men, and 
would enable him in due course of time to perform 
all his tasks justly and with success. 

What that task was through the revolutionary war 
can be appreciated only in the details of events that 
require volumes of description in telling. One 
cannot read it through with its ignoble intrigues, 
unpatriotic dissentions, and dangerous rivalries 
without feeling that Washington combined great 
manhood, great leadership, great statesmanship and 
great generalship, and that no other man of less char- 
acter and genius than that could ever have welded 
together such discordant and diversified elements 
into a means sufficient to achieve the independence 
and liberty of America. 



CHAPTER XIII 
LARGE BODIES MOVE SLOWLY 



I. THE FIRST COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 

There are events enough during the progress of 
the revolutionary war to give a complete analysis 
of Washington's mind and character, enough, in- 
deed, to make a large volume in itself. But these 
incidents are easily available to any student of the 
revolutionary war. Of all his wonderful career, as 
a child born to the wealth and luxury of his times, as 
a landed proprietor of one of the greatest fortunes 
in America, as soldier, statesman and first Presi- 
dent of the United States, there is nowhere on record 
a single ignoble, immoral or dishonorable word or 
deed in any way relating to the principles or interests 
fundamental for his character, mind and life. It is 
supremely gratifying to American ideals that 
Washington was in everything morally worthy of 
being known as " first in peace, first in war and first 

126 



LARGE BODIES MOVE SLOWLY 127 



in the hearts of his countrymen/' standing forth a 
great figure of American nobility, crowned with high 
title in being known as the " Father of his Country." 

The army was anxious to see their chief and the 
people were eager for a look at the man who in- 
spired them all with so much confidence. Washing- 
ton's appearance could not disappoint them. No 
more born-commander of men, at least in appear- 
ance, ever sat in military uniform upon a horse. 
The emotions of the people in those troubulous times 
all went out to him, as they cheered him wherever 
he went. To know Washington is to know that his 
feelings responded heartily to their interests, and 
no doubt were strengthened by their trust for the 
wonder-working task before him. 

One of the most intellectual and charming of the 
cultured women of New England was the wife of 
John Adams. After meeting Washington she wrote 
to her husband, " Dignity, ease and complacency, the 
gentleman and the soldier, look agreeably blended in 
him. Modesty marks every feature of his face. 
Those lines of Dryden instantly occurred to me : 

' Mark his ma j estic fabric ! He'sa temple 
Sacred by birth and built by hands divine ; 
His soul's the deity that lodges there; 
Nor is the pile unworthy of the God.' 



128 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

As an incident of the multitudinous varieties of 
problems that Washington had to solve may be men- 
tioned the treatment of the American prisoners 
taken by the British. The Americans were regarded 
as rebels, having no more standing in law than trai- 
tors. If the student looks carefully at the dates of 
progress in the freedom of the colonies and their for- 
mation into a nation, he will see that many years of 
wrangle and debate took place. Nothing went by 
leaps. Opinions grew and they grew very slowly and 
uncertainly. Therefore, when a crisis came, Wash- 
ington had to make momentous decisions that were 
not only of farreaching consequences, but that he 
could execute and that his people would sanction. 
He was not a silent man. He wrote and spoke much, 
thus clearing the way for action, and unifying the 
mind of the people on the needs and rights of the 
times. 

An extract from a letter to the British General 
Gage, in the beginning of the war, shows on what 
grounds Washington demanded the right treatment 
of American prisoners, who had so far been grossly 
mistreated. 

"They suppose," he wrote, concerning American 
prisoners, "that they act from the noblest of all prin- 
ciples, a love of freedom and their country. But 
political principles, I conceive, are foreign to this 



LARGE BODIES MOVE SLOWLY 129 

point. The obligations arising from the rights of hu- 
manity, and claims of rank, are universally binding 
and extensive, except in cases of retaliation. 

"My duty now makes it necessary to apprise you 
that, for the future, I shall regulate all my conduct 
towards those gentlemen who are or may be in our 
possession exactly by the rule you shall observe 
toward those of ours now in your custody." 

Though General Gage's reply was full of the 
words "criminals," "rebels," and "hanging," the 
harsh treatment became generally modified as he re- 
alized that Washington meant what he said. 



II. BIG BUSINESS, MONEY-MAKERS AND PATRIOTISM 

Public sentiment when not aroused by immediate 
danger gets into action very slowly, and especially 
if it is divided into numerous rival sections as was 
the case in the colonies. The army at first consisted 
of two extremes, the real patriots and the many army 
adventurers. It was an age of travelling soldiers. 
Especially was there an overwhelming offer from 
foreign officers to go into service. To refuse them 
looked like ingratitude. It brought up the old say- 
ing of "looking a gift horse in the mouth." But 



130 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

the wisdom and firmness of Washington was never 
put to better use than here. He believed that Amer- 
icans should win the war. In the darkest period 
he said, "Put none but Americans on guard tonight. ' ' 

In one of his letters he speaks of the "hungry ad- 
venturers," whose endless applications for com- 
mands were one of his worst annoyances. And, still 
more, many of these soldiers of fortune came from 
Europe with great recommendations and they se- 
cured powerful influences in Congress to force 
themselves upon Washington. 

The mind of the times stood in great awe of British 
power, therefore it is additional credit to the mind 
of Washington that he had no such fear or awe 
toward British might. Besides, the country was al- 
ways asking impossible things. Congress urged 
Washington to surround the enemy and cut off their 
supplies. They had no vision of Washington's in- 
adequate means. Therefore enemies arose asserting 
they could do what Washington was not doing, and 
the American army had not only the confusion of in- 
terests in its own ranks to contend with, but was 
between a contentious congress and a hardly more 
contentious British army. Washington's methods 
now look so reasonable and practical that we wonder 
how the people could be so ignorant, blind and ob- 
structive, but a century later than our time may 



LARGE BODIES MOVE SLOWLY 131 

show us to be stoning our prophets and killing our 
saviors, just as they have done through all the peri- 
ods of history. It is the disastrous tribute that de- 
mocracy pays to partisanship, and that humanity has 
always paid partisan leadership. 

The malignant intrigues that tried to take advan- 
tage of the slow progress of the war, and have hun- 
gry rivals put into Washington's place, are matters 
of special history. But Washington met those ill- 
begotten schemes with the cold indifference and calm 
dignity which were the unfailing measures of his life 
and character. Though he was sensitive, and high- 
spirited, he would not let that trait in his nature 
work to the advantage of his enemies. They worked 
up slights and insults all around him, but he never 
replied unless he dealt a stinging blow, or showed 
up the treacherous character of their work. Much 
of the rivalry developed against Washington was 
of sectional prejudices, but the real intelligence and 
patriotism of the colonies would have nothing to do 
with it. In all those schemes to injure Washington 
we see the same method in politics used on up to 
the present time. Newspapers and speakers distort 
the achievements of political opponents into the most 
fanatical accusations, and bewilder the voter with 
charges and countercharges till he feels as if he were 
between the firing lines of two fighting armies, for 



132 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

one or the other of which he must cast his votes. 
But " belonging to a party" is happily not the honor 
it once was. The good of the country is found to be, 
not so much in the political platform of parties but 
in the character of men, harmonizing with the rights 
of man. It is thus that the congressional resolutions 
and the party wrangling of Washington's time, as in 
that of Lincoln, are wholly discredited in estimating 
the lives of those great leaders of the American mind. 
In its full view, the American ideal is seen to be that 
the man or woman who presides decently and right- 
eously over the humanity of self or family or group 
is president of the human world. 

The ignorant criticism of the time is well illus- 
trated from the dark winter days of Valley Forge. 
There, so little had Congress done for the army, 
the soldiers were literally starving. Most of them 
were barefoot, and so poorly provided that they had 
to sit up all night close to their camp-fire in order to 
keep from freezing. And yet the legislature of Penn- 
sylvania issued a stern remonstrance against their 
going into winter quarters. Washington must keep 
to the open field and be in continual operation against 
the well-fed, thoroughly trained and highly equipped 
British troops. 

Washington closed a letter to Congress, saying, in 
referring to those who thus condemned him, "They 



LARGE BODIES MOVE SLOWLY 133 



seem to have little feeling for the naked and dis- 
tressed soldiers. I feel superabundantly for them, 
and from my soul I pity those miseries which it is 
neither in my power to relieve nor prevent." 

As in our own times, big business found opportu- 
nity to fatten itself on the needs of the people. The 
greatness of Washington is in startling evidence 
when it is seen how he not only had to conduct a 
war and guide an unprovided army split up into rival 
sections, but he had to be statesman and diplomat 
enough to manage a menagerie of ideas ranging 
through the congressional sessions like animals 
broken loose in a circus. Each one was trying to per- 
form something that was in effect worse than noth- 
ing. The representatives of the people gathered in 
the American capital have often since that time re- 
peated the original show. 



in. THE STRONG MIND FOR GREAT NEEDS 

The union that is strength is always slow in the 
making. Minds get together slowly wherever there 
is freedom in thinking for thought-out individual re- 
sponsibility. 

In writing to Benjamin Harrison, Washington 



134 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

pointed out how detrimental it was for each colony 
to be centering itself on its own prosperity. To 
Colonel Joseph Reed, December, 1778, he wrote more 
freely of the " monopolizers, forestallers, and engros- 
sers" who were " murderers of our cause." 

"It is much to be lamented," he said, "that each 
state, long ere this, has not hunted them down as 
pests to society and the greatest enemies we have to 
the happiness of America. I would to God that 
some one of the most atrocious in each state was hung 
in gibbets upon a gallows five times as high as the one 
prepared by Haman. No punishment, in my opin- 
ion, is too great for the man who can build his great- 
ness upon his country's ruin." 

This shows how Washington loathed meanness and 
treachery and how he minced no words in saying so. 
Only such men are leaders of men. No man who 
believes anything and is afraid to say it has a place 
in the political meaning of America. 

Benjamin Harrison, full of the same righteous re- 
sentment, writes at the time, "If I were to be called 
upon to draw a picture of the times and of men, from 
what I have seen, heard, and in part know, I should 
in one word say that idleness, dissipation, and ex- 
travagance seem to have laid fast hold of most of 
them ; that speculation, peculation, and an insatiable 
thirst for riches seem to have got the better of every 



LARGE BODIES MOVE SLOWLY 135 

other consideration, and almost every order of men ; 
that party disputes and personal quarrels are the 
great business of the day." 

And so, to one patriot and then to another, Wash- 
ington appealed for help to save the wasting fortunes 
of his country. 

To George Mason he wrote that we are "fast verg- 
ing to destruction. ' ' The widespread demoralization 
of both army and people, the scramble for profit, and 
the unpatriotic plunder of vital interests at last be- 
came so evident under Washington's ringing denun- 
ciations that the real patriots of the country awoke 
to the peril. Lafayette and the two Morrises took 
the lead in their respective fields of work. Writers 
and speakers took up the task of arousing the people 
and their officers in Congress, and at last the tide 
turned. The strong minds at last prevailed in unit- 
ing the people into a reliable force for the great 
need, and the American republic became an acknowl- 
edged part of the humanity of the earth. 



CHAPTER XIV 

TURNING REVOLUTION THROUGH FREE- 
DOM INTO GOVERNMENT 



I. SEEKING RETIREMENT FOR LIFE IN THE PEACE OF A 
COUNTRY HOME 

The Revolutionary war had extended over a 
period of eight years, through almost unparalleled 
discouragements and intolerable trials of faith and 
purpose, when the British troops were finally with- 
drawn from American soil. The differences in the 
appearances of the British and American troops are 
described by an American lady living in New York, 
while the British held possession there. She wrote, 
u We had been accustomed for a long time to the mili- 
tary display in all the finish and finery of garrison 
life; the troops just leaving us were as if equipped 
for show, and with their scarlet uniforms and bur- 
nished arms made a brilliant display. The troops 

136 



REVOLUTION INTO GOVERNMENT 137 

that marched in, on the contrary, were ill-clad and 
weatherbeaten, and made a forlorn appearance ; but 
then they were our troops, and, as I looked at them 
and thought of all they had done and suffered for 
us, my heart and my eyes were full, and I admired 
and gloried in them the more, because they were 
weatherbeaten and forlorn." 

In a letter to Baron Steuben, written on the 23rd 
of December, 1783, Washington concludes as follows, 
"This is the last letter I shall write while I continue 
in the service of my country. The hour of my resig- 
nation is fixed at twelve today, after which I shall 
become a private citizen on the banks of the Poto- 
mac.' J 

At noon on that memorable day the Hall of Con- 
gress was filled with a notable assemblage of promi- 
nent people. The members of Congress remained 
seated with their hats on, as was the custom of the 
times, but the spectators were standing with uncov- 
ered heads when "Washington, conducted by the sec- 
retary of Congress, entered and was given a seat ap- 
pointed for him. 

The President of Congress arose, and, after stat- 
ing the purpose of the meeting at that hour, said to 
Washington, "The United States in Congress assem- 
bled are now prepared to receive your communica- 
tion.' ' 



138 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

Washington arose and delivered a short address, 
at the close of which he said, "I consider it an indis- 
pensable duty to close this last solemn act of my of- 
ficial life by commending the interests of our dearest 
country to the protection of Almighty God; and 
those who have the superintendence of them to His 
holy keeping. Having now finished the work as- 
signed to me, I retire from the great theatre of ac- 
tion; and, bidding an affectionate farewell to this 
august body, under whose orders I have long acted, I 
here offer my commission, and take my leave of all 
the employments of public life." 

A writer who was present, speaking of this scene, 
says, "Few tragedies ever drew so many tears from 
so many beautiful eyes as the moving manner in 
which his Excellency took his final leave of Con- 
gress." 

The President of Congress replied to his address, 
and, after reciting the wisdom and valor with which 
Washington had accomplished the great task as- 
signed him, said, " You retire from the theatre of ac- 
tion with the blessings of your fellow citizens; but 
the glory of your virtues will not terminate with your 
military command; it will continue to animate re- 
mote ages." 

Washington arrived at Mount Vernon on Christ- 
mas eve, where the home-coming was duly celebrated 



REVOLUTION INTO GOVERNMENT 139 

as could be done only in the colonial plantation days. 

"The scene is at last closed/ ' he wrote to his 
friend, Governor Clinton of New York. "I feel my- 
self eased of a load of public care. I hope to spend 
the remainder of my days in cultivating the affec- 
tions of good men, and in the practice of domestic 
virtues.' ' 

How little Washington or his friends knew of the 
future ! A task and a responsibility of no less im- 
portance than the conduct of the Revolutionary war 
was yet to devolve upon him. The repose of a soldier 
had to give way to the mind- work of a great states- 
man. 

In a letter to that great friend of America, with- 
out whose aid there could hardly have been a free 
America, General Lafayette, Washington wrote, 
"Free from the bustle of a camp and the busy scenes 
of public life I am solacing myself with those tran- 
quil enjoyments which the soldier, who is ever in 
pursuit of fame ; the statesman, whose watchful days 
and sleepless nights are spent in devising schemes 
to promote the welfare of his own, perhaps the ruin 
of other countries, — as if this globe were insufficient 
for us all ; and the courtier, who is always watching 
the countenance of his prince in hopes of catching 
a gracious smile, can have very little conception." 

Later, in writing to the Marchioness de Lafayette, 



140 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

inviting her to visit America, where her husband had 
earned such glory and where everybody loved and 
admired him, he gave a charming picture of the sim- 
plicity of his life. 

"I am now enjoying domestic ease under the 
shadow of my own vine and fig tree, in a small villa, 
with the implements of husbandry and lambkins 
about me. Come, then, let me entreat you, and call 
my cottage your own ; for your own doors do not open 
to you with more readiness than mine would. You 
will see the plain manner in which we live, and meet 
the rustic civility ; and you shall taste the simplicity 
of rural life. It will diversify the scene, and may 
give you a higher relish for the gayeties of the court 
when you return to Versailles.' ' 



II. FREEDOM AND THE WRANGLE FOR PERSONAL GAIN 

Knowing that Washington would be at continual 
expense to entertain distinguished guests who would 
come to see him, Congress tried to grant him a re- 
ward for his distinguished services, but he had 
served his country without pay and he refused. In 
the meanwhile, the hospitality of Washington was 



REVOLUTION INTO GOVERNMENT 141 

taxed to the utmost, and his time was much taken up 
in important conferences over political affairs. The 
country was being governed by Congress under the 
Articles of Confederation which then bound the 
states, but probably with less efficiency than thirteen 
horses in a single rein and rope harness to draw a 
rattling, curtain-flapping carriage. The old state 
patriotisms were revived and with them the rivalries 
and jealousies of political sections. Whatever one 
state wanted seemed to be the signal for its neighbor 
to want something else. The United States were 
indeed plural with a vengeance! "E Pluribus 
Unum" that had so laboriously and valiantly come 
true, as meaning one out of many, in war, had 
changed about to its first condition and was again 
many out of one. 

In 1786, in a letter to General Knox, Washington 
wrote, "I feel, my dear General Knox, infinitely 
more than I can express to you for the disorders 
which have arisen in these states. Good God! who, 
besides a Tory, could have foreseen, or a Briton pre- 
dicted them ? I do assure you that, even at this mo- 
ment, when I reflect upon the present prospect of 
affairs, it seems to me to be like the vision of a dream. 
After what I have seen, or rather what I have heard, 
I shall be surprised at nothing; for, if three years 
since, any person had told me that there would have 



142 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

been such a formidable rebellion as exists at this da} r 
against the laws and constitution of our own making, 
I should have thought him a bedlamite, a fit subject 
for a mad-house." 

He wrote to James Madison, saying, "How mel- 
ancholy is the reflection that in so short a time we 
should have made such large strides toward fulfill- 
ing the predictions of our transatlantic foes, who 
said, i Leave them to themselves and their govern- 
ment will soon dissolve' ? Will not the wise and good 
strive hard to avert this evil?" 

The only remedy which "the wise and good" could 
use to avert the calamity of having thirteen feeble 
little nations at war with one another was to sup- 
plant the "Articles of Confederation" with a Fed- 
eral Constitution, and, at last, this was accomplished, 
with so many compromises and concessions to so- 
called "state rights" that it required a frightful four 
years' civil war to establish the meaning of the Fed- 
eral Constitution, so that the United States gram- 
marians and politicians could agree to say the United 
States "is" instead of saying that the United States 
"are." 

With the adoption of the Federal Constitution, it 
was provided that electors should be chosen whose 
duty it was to select a president for the United 
States. 



REVOLUTION INTO GOVERNMENT 143 

There could be but one man seriously considered. 
The landed gentleman who had become a soldier and 
won liberty for the Western world was soon seen 
to be destined, by the nation he had made, to be its 
first president, and henceforth by nature, if not by 
the providence of God, to be statesman, and the 
" First Citizen of America. " Accordingly, George 
Washington was chosen first president of the West- 
ern republic, to begin a term of four years from the 
fourth of March, 1789. 



III. LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF LIBERTY AND LAW 

Through the desperate eight years of war, in 
which the devastations of the British could hardly 
be called worse than the wrangling differences of 
opinion and sordid interests among the colonies, 
Washington had conserved and guided the struggle 
for American liberty, so that, at the close of the war, 
with the disembarkation for Halifax of troops, roy- 
alists and tories, there was a unanimous voice of har- 
mony for a new America. 

Then came the divisions under the rivalry of the 
colonies as a loose confederation of separate repub- 
lics. After that Washington was again at the head 



144 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

of American interests and for another eight years. 
It was a period of reconstruction. The opportunity 
to have a new nation, that human beings might have 
a place of freedom in the sun, was supplied by the 
eight years of revolutionary struggle, but the founda- 
tions for that nation were not laid firmly until there 
were eight years' labor upon the Constitutional form 
of government under Washington. 

Probably no man, with the exception of Lincoln, 
has been so loved and so hated, or ever will be in 
America, as Washington. It is the most pathetic 
thing in all the weakness of intelligence, or rather 
the strength of prejudice, that the world always 
hates, and sometimes kills, its benefactors, its friends 
and saviors. 

But somehow, with all the storm and stress of 
things, notwithstanding the hate and revenge of dis- 
appointed greed, the rights of life are carried on, 
and the values of humanity prevail. 

The time for the third election of a president was 
drawing near. All the malignant virulence possible 
to destroy the name and services of Washington were 
coming into use. He was accused of every public 
evil and private unfitness under the sun. And yet 
there is hardly any doubt worth consideration that 
he could have been elected for the third term if he 
had desired it. But he had done his share of the 



REVOLUTION INTO GOVERNMENT 145 

work of the world. He saw that his example would 
be used as a precedent for the ambitions of future 
politicians. There must be a reasonable time limit 
even to the restricted governing powers of a presi- 
dent. He declined to serve more than two terms. 
Only once since then has there been an organized at- 
tempt to break that precedent. The politicians tried 
their utmost means to give General Grant a third 
term, but the hostility of the nation against the dan- 
ger of such prolonged power at last prevailed and 
the attempt was defeated, probably never to be suc- 
cessful. 

Washington's farewell address on retiring from 
the presidency has ever remained a beacon-light for 
the guidance of American views of American gov- 
ernment, especially in its relation with foreign na- 
tions. 

The reply of the House of Representatives gave 
strong praise for the wisdom, firmness, moderation 
and magnanimity with which he had guided the af- 
fairs of his country. But the kicker was there and 
his voice was heard. A prominent representative 
from Virginia was disgusted with any praise of 
Washington's wisdom and firmness. He raised his 
voice in the halls of Congress and put himself on 
historical record as especially opposed to giving 
Washington any praise for the administration of 



146 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

foreign affairs. He declared that "the weakness and 
feeble judgment of Washington in our foreign re- 
lations'' has brought us under "the contempt of for- 
eign nations," and had conducted our country to 
"the verge of a greater calamity than had ever been 
threatened before in our history." That patriotic 
scare sounds strangely like the calamity prophecies 
of politicians against every president in every na- 
tional crisis. In such cases it is well to remember 
that political partisans are not thus qualified to be 
American patriots. They are special pleaders for 
their own particular party greed. 

Twelve other members believed as this one from 
Virginia. They would much rather have censured 
Washington for weakness than to have praised him 
for strength. Among these thirteen partisans was 
a young man from Tennessee named Andrew Jack- 
son, who afterward became one of the famous Presi- 
dents. 

These violent differences of opinion and the vicious 
personal attacks on motives, attributed each to each, 
has been one of the pitiable signs of injustice and 
incompetency in American politics. Time after 
time, as the presidential campaigns arrive, the fist- 
like will of each side is thrust into the other's faces, 
as those "belonging" to a party fight to get votes for 
the party candidate, not for a patriotic cause. In 




Washington Statue in United States Capitol. Washington, D. C. 



REVOLUTION INTO GOVERNMENT 147 

times of great national peril, whether in times of 
war at home or abroad, the president who preserves, 
as "Washington did, the rights of his country in con- 
formity to the rights of man, which is the only pos- 
sible rights of either, is hated by the extremists on 
both sides. They both call him weak, and, therefore, 
though hating each other, unite to defeat the man 
who would not lead his country into taking up with 
their special interests. But, fortunately, we some- 
times have presidents with mind, patriotism and 
character greater than any party. Most hopefully, 
there are increasingly greater numbers who belong 
to their country instead of to a party, and who elect 
human principles to rule and to reign over us rather 
than the ring-managers of prejudice and partisan- 
ship known as "parties." Presently there will be 
enough independent thinking for any one to consider 
it as unpatriotic to belong to a "party" as to belong 
to any other political fragment, clique, or social 
group, presuming to dictate what is weakness and 
what is strength for the individual mind as its only 
choice in patriotism and Americanism. America, 
composed of every element of humanity from every 
part of the earth, is the strongest nation of all time, 
and capable of being the clearest and most just for 
the freedom of the world. Here we strive for the 
peace of freedom in law. We war only against war. 



148 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

American intelligence and mercy are rapidly devising 
ways to eliminate the various forms of enslavement, 
dissentions and divisions that weaken American 
civilization, so that democracy may be safe in itself. 
In the great European war, President Wilson an- 
nounced the purpose of the United States to be for 
the right that is greater than peace, in which the 
world must be made safe for democracy. And so, 
humanity gains " a place in the sun" and the kingdom 
of heaven is among us. For the sake of peace on 
earth, America must be strong in the might of right, 
and be willing and ready to save to the uttermost. 
America is president of the peace-nations of the earth 
because it alone is federated upon the principles of 
human justice, eternal and universal. 

France and America, in the name of liberty, will 
be forever crowned together in the praise of human 
history. The mutual friendship that existed during 
Washington's presidency is illustrated by a toast 
drunk at a banquet of French and Americans in New 
York, February 22, 1795 : 

"To the President of the United States: May the 
day that gave him birth mark an epoch in the annals 
of liberty ! 

"To the French Republic: May she triumph over 
her enemies and obtain the tranquillity of peace 
founded upon justice and reason! 



REVOLUTION INTO GOVERNMENT 149 



"To the memory of the heroes of all nations who 
have gloriously fallen for the defense of the rights of 
man!" 

Friends and allies of France have changed during 
the tumultuous years, but, republic to republic, 
France and the United States still pledge fealty to 
liberty, justice and reason and do honor to the heroic 
defenders of the rights of man among all nations. 



CHAPTER XV 
THE PEACE OP HOME AT LAST 



I. SORROW FOR THE DEPARTED SCENES AROUND MOUNT 

VERNON 

At the close of his term of office, March 4, 1797, 
Washington retired to his home at Mount Vernon 
loved by all the understanding world. 

In a letter to Mrs. S. Fairfax, then in England, he 
wrote, "It is a matter of sore regret when I cast 
my eyes toward Belvoir, which I often do, to reflect 
that the former inhabitants of it, with whom we 
lived in such harmony and friendship, no longer re- 
side there, and the ruins only can be viewed as the 
mementoes of former pleasures." 

The home interest of Washington can be seen in 
a letter he wrote to Miss Nelly Custis, a granddaugh- 
ter of his wife. Her father had died when she was a 
child, and Washington, having no children, had 

150 



PEACE OF HOME AT LAST 151 

adopted Nelly and brought her up in his family. She 
was of a beautiful nature and was much beloved by 
Washington. 

She appears to have had some very decided social 
notions, and one of these was, as she expressed it, 
"a perfect apathy toward the youth of the present 
day," and a determination never to give herself "a 
moment's uneasiness on account of any of them." 

That was perhaps the rather high-sounding notion 
that romantic young folks sometimes acquire of in- 
dependence from usual life and of superiority to 
their associates. Evidently Washington did not re- 
gard her resolution with any grave alarm. He per- 
haps knew the ancient privilege allowing women to 
change their minds. Nevertheless, it was worthy of 
his experienced consideration, at least against let- 
ting too many know her " irrevocable determina- 
tion" because, when she did change, as was doubt- 
less inevitable, it should not bear any likelihood of 
being embarrassing. 

"Men and women," he wrote her, "feel the same 
inclination toward each other now that they always 
have done, and which they will continue to do until 
there is a new order of things; and you, as others 
have done, may find that the passions of your sex are 
easier raised than allayed. Do not, therefore, boast 
too soon nor too strong of your insensibility. 



152 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

"Love is said to be an involuntary passion, and 
it is therefore contended that it cannot be resisted. 
This is true in part only, for, like all things else, 
when nourished and supplied plentifully with ali- 
ment, it is rapid in its progress ; but let these be with- 
drawn, and it may be stifled in its birth or much 
stinted in its growth. 

"Although we cannot avoid first impressions, we 
may assuredly place them under guard. 

"When the fire is begining to kindle, and your 
heart growing warm, propound these questions to it : 
Who is this invader ? Have I a competent knowledge 
of him? Is he a man of good character? A man 
of sense? For, be assured, a sensible woman can 
never be happy with a fool. What has been his walk 
in life ? Is he one to whom my friends can have no 
reasonable objection? 

"If all these interrogations can be satisfactorily 
answered, there will remain but one more to be asked. 
That, however, is an important one. Have I suf- 
ficient ground to conclude that his affections are en- 
gaged by me ? Without this the heart of sensibility 
will struggle against a passion that is not recipro- 
cated.' ' 

Sure enough, it was but a short time until romance 
came to Mount Vernon, and Miss Nelly changed her 
mind very promptly. Lawrence Lewis arrived, the 



PEACE OF HOME AT LAST 153 



clouds of doubt vanished, and the love-bells were 
set to ringing until the wedding-bells took up the 
melody that passed on into the music of the spheres. 



II. CROWNED IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME 
1799 

The beginning of the year 1799 was full of the 
romantic happiness of immortal youth for the house- 
hold of Washington, but the close of the year brought 
to an end the career of the first great American. On 
the twelfth of December he rode as usual around the 
estate at Mount Vernon, and was caught in a sleety 
rain. From this he developed acute laryngitis and 
died on the night of the fourteenth. He said, "I die 
hard but I am not afraid to go," and his last words 
were, " 'Tis well." 

His loved ones were around him and his last look 
was lovingly upon them. The doctor saw his coun- 
tenance change in death. He put his hands over the 
eyes out of which the light had forever gone, and one 
of the noblest souls of the earth passed away. There 
was not a struggle or a sigh. 

Mrs. Washington was sitting at the foot of the bed, 
and she asked bravely, "Is he gone?" 



154 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

The doctor could not speak, but he held up his 
hand as a sign that the spirit of their beloved was 
no longer there. 

" Tis well," she said, repeating his last words. 
"All is now over; I shall soon follow him; I have no 
more trials to pass through." 

The tributes of America and the world to his honor 
and his name may be noted in the words of Lord 
Brougham, an eminent British statesman, who re- 
flected the feeling of the nation against which he had 
waged a successful war: "It will be the duty of the 
historian, and the sage of all nations," he said, "to 
let no occasion pass of commemorating this illustri- 
ous man, and, until time shall be no more, will a 
test of the progress which our race has made in wis- 
dom and virtue be derived from the veneration paid 
to the immortal name of Washington." 

The great nations having any sort of democratic 
ideal fully recognized the fact that in his death had 
passed away one of the great men of the earth. The 
English Channel fleet lowered their ships' flags at 
half-mast in token of respect, and in the land of Na- 
poleon, who was then master of France, there was 
crepe draped about all their standards. Tallyrand, 
the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and one of the great- 
est orators and statesmen, prepared a report to the 
French government in which he said: "A nation 



PEACE OF HOME AT LAST 155 

which some day will be a great nation, and which to- 
day is the wisest and happiest on the face of the 
earth, weeps at the bier of a man whose courage and 
genius contributed most to free it from bondage and 
elevated it to the rank of an independent and sov- 
ereign power. The regfets caused by the death of 
this great man, the memories aroused by these re- 
grets, and a proper veneration for all that is held 
dear and sacred by mankind, impel us to give expres- 
sion to our sentiments by taking part in an event 
which deprives the world of one of its brightest orna- 
ments, and removes to the realm of history one of 
the noblest lives that ever honored the human race. 
"His own country now honors his memory with 
funeral ceremonies, having lost a citizen whose pub- 
lic actions and unassuming grandeur in private life 
were a living example of courage, wisdom and un- 
selfishness; and France, which from the dawn of 
American Revolution hailed with hope a nation, 
hitherto unknown, that was discarding the vices of 
Europe, which foresaw all the glory that this nation 
would bestow on humanity, and the enlightenment of 
governments that would ensue from the novel char- 
acter of the social institutions, and the new type of 
heroism, of which Washington and America were 
models for the world at large, — France, I repeat, 
should depart from established usages, and do honor 



156 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

to one whose fame is beyond comparison with that 
of others. The man who, among the decadence of 
modern ages, first dared believe that he could inspire 
degenerate nations with courage to rise to the level 
of republican virtues, lived for all nations and for all 
centuries." 

These tributes from the two greatest nations were 
sincere despite the fact that one of them had just 
been humiliated, beaten and dismembered by his 
leadership, and the other was only recently in the 
midst of open hostilities toward the United States, 
against which Washington was again made the na- 
tional commander-in-chief, thus on the very verge 
of war with France. Only in his own country had 
Washington been the object of the bitterest personal 
slander and political calumny. But, at his death, all 
ignorant prejudice and foul-mouthed envy became 
silent and sought to be hidden from the public pres- 
ence. In him there was greatness that could not be 
questioned and character that could be known only 
to be praised. The vision of him never fails from 
the sky of American ideals, and the young people of 
this nation have only to know his life to know for 
what kind of political interest each one should labor 
in the name of American liberty and the progress of 
an American humanity. 

Washington regarded parties as one of the most 



PEACE OF HOME AT LAST 157 

inexcusable and disturbing elements in the political 
life of a nation. He believed in men and principles, 
not in parties and platforms. It was more than a 
hundred years after his death before the people of 
the United States began to discard allegiance to par- 
ties and platforms in favor of men and the principles 
of humanity. 

When misrepresentation began its assault upon 
him in the presidency as it had done in the army, 
Washington wrote, "The man who means to commit 
no wrong will never be guilty of enormities ; conse- 
quently he can never be unwilling to learn what are 
ascribed to him as foibles. If they are really such, 
the knowledge of them in a well disposed mind will 
go halfway towards a reform. If they are errors, he 
can explain and justify the motive of his actions.' ' 

It is thus that a well-balanced disposition willingly 
receives criticism, whatever its motive, for any value 
he can get out of it, with little concern for the inten- 
tions of the criticism, if his own purpose is fair and 
just. 

He greatly deplored the misrepresentation of the 
partisan newspapers, believing that the people of a 
nation would never go wrong if they had the truth 
before them upon which to make up their minds. 
It is very generally true that parties have governed 
for the spoils of power and office. Political parties 



158 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

have very often fostered false argument and worse 
distortion of their opponents' meaning, so that large 
numbers of honorable and honest-minded persons 
have been misled into truly fearful fanaticism, and 
more fearful support of purposes, which, if they had 
known, they would have abhorred. 



III. A LIFE-LIKE SCENE FROM WASHINGTON'S HOME LIFE 

John Bernard, a noted English actor, who came 
to play an engagement in America soon after Wash- 
ington had retired from the presidency, tells an ex- 
perience which gives us quite a picture of our own, in 
which we can see Washington free from all the 
glamor of fame that usually half hides the real man 
from our view. 

Bernard says that he was playing at Annapolis in 
1798 when, one day, he went out riding down below 
Alexandria. Just as he was coming in sight of a 
man and young woman riding toward him in a chaise, 
the carriage was overturned and the two were thrown 
violently out. The man was not hurt but the woman 
was struck unconscious. The actor rode hurriedly 
up, and, dismounting, began at once to see what could 
be done for the woman. Soon she returned to con- 



PEACE OF HOME AT LAST 159 

sciousness with a volley of fierce scolding at her hus- 
band that was extremely ludicrous, if not ridiculous. 

Bernard now noticed that another man had ridden 
up and was helping the unfortunate husband to ex- 
tricate the horse and get the animal upon its feet. 
The three men then set to work to get the heavy car- 
riage, still heavier loaded with baggage, back into 
service. It was a hot July day and the half hour's 
work was a rather exhausting task for two who 
seemed to be out riding for mere recreation. 

When the man and his wife were once more in the 
carriage, ready to drive on, they invited the two 
strangers to go on with them to Alexandria and have 
something to drink in appreciation of their timely 
service, but both declined, and the chaise started 
afresh upon its journey. 

Bernard says, "My companion, after an exclama- 
tion at the heat, offered very courteously to dust my 
coat, a favor the return of which enabled me to take 
a deliberate survey of his person. He was a tall, 
erect, well-made man, evidently advanced in years, 
but who appeared to have retained all the vigor and 
elasticity resulting from a life of temperance and 
exercise. His dress was a blue coat buttoned to his 
chin and buckskin breeches. Though the instant he 
took off his hat I could not avoid the recognition of 
familiar lineaments, which, indeed, I was in the habit 



160 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

of seeing on every sign-post and over every fire- 
place, still I failed to identify him, and to my sur- 
prise I found that I was an object of equal specula- 
tion in his eyes. 

" 'Mr. Bernard, I believe,' he said after a mo- 
ment's pause, and then spoke of having seen me play 
in Philadelphia, following at once with an invita- 
tion to spend a couple of hours in rest and refresh- 
ment at his house, which he pointed out in the dis- 
tance.' ' 

It then came clear to the actor who was his dis- 
tinguished-looking companion. 

Mr. Bernard thus continues his description of this 
experience, " 'Mount Vernon,' I exclaimed; and then, 
drawing back with a stare of wonder, 'Have I the 
honor of addressing General Washington ?' 

"With a smile whose expression of benevolence I 
have rarely seen equalled, he offered his hand and re- 
plied: 'An odd sort of introduction, Mr. Bernard; 
but I am pleased to find you can play so active a part 
in private without a prompter.' " 

In the conversation that ensued over the refresh- 
ments at Mount Vernon, Mr. Bernard studied his 
distinguished host with deep earnestness, and has 
left us a vivid picture in description as the actor saw 
him. 

He says that in the conversation Washington's 



PEACE OF HOME AT LAST 161 

face did not present much variety of expression. It 
wore always a look of profound thoughtfulness. 
Neither was there much change in the tones of his 
voice, but its intonations were rich with the depths 
of expression. 

The keynote of his talk seemed to be summed up, 
as the actor believed, in one of the sentences of this 
conversation: "I am a man, and interested in all 
that concerns humanity." This is in truth the key- 
note of any mind that ever achieves anything worth 
while. One does for self or party or nation only as 
it is for humanity. Any other deed or thought is 
not patriotism but partisanship. America is that 
manhood interested with all its available means in 
the humanity of the world. 

Mr. Bernard, with what seems to be the deep in- 
sight that a great actor must have into character and 
human nature, says, "He spoke like a man who had 
felt as much as he had reflected, and reflected more 
than he had spoken; like one who had looked upon 
society rather in the mass than in detail, and who 
regarded the happiness of America but as the first 
link in a series of universal victories.'' This vision, 
opened up to America in the devastations of the 
Great European War for "a place in the sun," was 
enlarged by American patriots, not for any closed-in 
nation, but for the rights of humanity. 



162 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

It chanced, during the conversation, that, while 
Washington was comparing English liberty as sur- 
rounded by walls, with American liberty as in the 
open, a black man came in with a jug of spring 
water. 

Washington saw the actor look at the slave and 
smile with an inward thought. He quickly guessed 
at the thought and responded, "When we profess, 
as our fundamental principle, that liberty is the in- 
alienable right of every man, we do not include mad- 
men or idiots ; liberty in their hands would become 
a scourge. Till the mind of the slave has been edu- 
cated to perceive what are the obligations of a state 
of freedom, and not confound a man's freedom with 
a brute's, the gift would insure its abuse." 

He expressed his belief that slavery must some 
time be banished for the unity of American princi- 
ples, and, in this connection, it should be remem- 
bered that, by will, he freed all his own slaves, to take 
place at the death of his wife. 



CHAPTER XVI 
STANDARDS OF AMERICAN PATRIOTISM 



I. FOUNDATIONS 

The fundamental statement of American democ- 
racy and freedom is to be found in the first two para- 
graphs of the Declaration of Independence and in 
the preamble of the Constitution. That keynote of 
humanity there expressed is as follows : 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among 
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness ; 
that to secure these rights Governments are insti- 
tuted among Men, deriving their just powers from 
the consent of the governed; that, whenever any 
Form of Government becomes destructive of these 
ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abol- 
ish it, and to institute a new government, laying its 

163 



164 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

foundation on such principles, and organizing its 
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely 
to effect their Safety and Happiness." 

The unity of purpose, hereditary in responsibility 
to all native Americans, and sworn to as the accepted 
duty of all naturalized citizens, is expressed in the 
last sentence of the Declaration : 

"And, for the support of this Declaration, with a 
firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, 
we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our for- 
tunes, and our sacred honor. " 

The preamble of the Constitution reaffirms and re- 
inforces the American ideal of a progressive and 
perfective striving toward a government "of the 
people, by the people and for the people.' ' 

It is as follows : 

"We, the people of the United States, in order to 
form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure 
-domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common de- 
fence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the 
Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, 
do ordain and establish this Constitution of the 
United States of America." 

The oath of allegiance into which we are born, and 
which becomes the measure of every possible Ameri- 
can, contains the following inescapable responsibil- 
ity: 



STANDARDS OF PATRIOTISM 165 

"I, - , do solemnly affirm that I will sup- 
port and defend the Constitution of the United States 
against all enemies, foreign and domestic ; that I will 
bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I 
take this obligation freely, without any mental reser- 
vation or purpose of evasion ; and that I will well and 
faithfully discharge the duties of the office which I 
am about to enter: So help me God." 



n. FREEDOM OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 

The Farewell Address of Washington to Congress 
contains advice on our foreign relations which is 
part of any study of his life. The most important 
of this is as follows : "The great rule of conduct for 
us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our 
commercial relations, to have with them as little po- 
litical connection as possible. So far as we have al- 
ready formed engagements let them be fulfilled with 
perfect good faith. Here let us stop. 

"Europe has a set of primary interests which to us 
have none, or a very remote, relation. Hence she 
must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes 
of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. 
Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to impli- 
cate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicis- 



166 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

situdes of her politics or the ordinary combinations 
and collisions of her friendships or enmities. 

"Our detached and distant situation invites and 
enables us to pursue a different course. If we re- 
main one people, under an efficient government, the 
period is not far off when we may defy material in- 
jury from external annoyance; when we may take 
such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may 
at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously re- 
spected; when belligerent nations, under the impos- 
sibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not 
lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we 
may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by 
justice, shall counsel. 

"Why forego the advantages of as peculiar a situ- 
ation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign 
ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with 
that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and 
prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rival- 
ship, interest, humor or caprice? 

"It is our duty to steer clear of permanent alli- 
ances with any portion of the foreign world ; so far, 
I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it ; for let me 
not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity 
to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less 
applicable to public than to private affairs that hon- 
esty is always the best policy. 



STANDA RDS OF PATRIOTISM 167 

"Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable 
establishments, on a respectable defensive posture, 
we may safely trust to temporary alliances for ex- 
traordinary emergencies. ' ' 

Washington in his will, disposing of his swords, 
says, " These swords are accompanied with an in- 
junction not to unsheath them for the purpose of 
shedding blood except it be for self-defense, or in de- 
fense of their country and its rights, and in the latter 
case to keep them unsheathed, and prefer falling 
with them in their hands to the relinquishment 
thereof.' ' 

Related to the Farewell Address and as a corol- 
lary to it is what is known as "The Monroe Doc- 
trine." 

The "Monroe Doctrine" as a policy of the United 
States is founded upon two passages in President 
Monroe's message to Congress on Dec. 2, 1823. These 
passages follow: 

"In the discussion to which this interest has given 
rise, and in the arrangements by which they may ter- 
minate, the occasion has been deemed proper for as- 
serting, as a principle in which rights and interests 
of the United States are involved, that the Ameri- 
can continents, by the free and independent condi- 
tion which they have assumed and maintain, are 



168 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

henceforth not to be considered as subjects for fu- 
ture colonization by any European power. * * * 
"We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amica- 
ble relations existing between the United States and 
those powers to declare that we should consider any 
attempt on their part to extend their system to any 
portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace 
and safety. With the existing colonies or dependen- 
cies of any European power we have not interfered 
and shall not interfere. But with the governments 
who have declared their independence and maintain 
it, and whose independence we have, on great con- 
sideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we 
could not view any interposition for the purpose of 
oppressing them or controlling in any other manner 
their destiny by any European power in any other 
light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly dis- 
position toward the United States.' ' 

Two notable explanations have been given, as fol- 
lows: 

Secretary of State Olney in his dispatch of July 
20, 1895, on the Venezuelan boundary dispute, said : 

"It (the Monroe Doctrine) does not establish any 
general protectorate by the United States over other 
American States. It does not relieve any American 



STANDARDS OF PATRIOTISM 169 

State from its obligations as fixed by international 
law, nor prevent any European power directly in- 
terested from enforcing such obligations or from in- 
flicting merited punishment for the breach of them." 

President Roosevelt, in a speech in 1902 upon the 
results of the Spanish- American war, said : 

"The Monroe Doctrine is simply a statement of 
our very firm belief that the nations now existing 
on this continent must be left to work out their own 
destinies among themselves, and that this continent 
is no longer to be regarded as the colonizing ground 
of any European power. The one power on the con- 
tinent that can make the power effective is, of course, 
ourselves; for in the world as it is, a nation which 
advances a given doctrine, likely to interfere in any 
way with other nations, must possess the power to 
back it up, if it wishes the doctrine to be respected.' ' 

President Wilson in an address to the Senate of 
the United States, Jan. 22, 1917, advised an Ameri- 
can interest in an extension of the Monroe Doctrine. 
The main points were as follows : 

"No peace can last, or ought to last, which does 
not recognize and accept the principle that govern- 



170 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

ments derive all their just powers from the consent 
of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists 
to hand people about from sovereignty to sovereignty 
as if they were property. 

"I am proposing, as it were, that the nations 
should with one accord adopt the doctrine of Presi- 
dent Monroe as the doctrine of the world : That no 
nation should seek to extend its policy over any other 
nation or people, but that every people should be left 
free to determine its own policy, its own way of de- 
velopment, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the 
little along with the great." 



III. THE LOYALTY OF YOUTH 

Rome and Greece in their age of world dominion 
were great because of the loyalty and nobility of their 
youth. Patriotism is by no means a modern virtue, 
and it is often wondered if the youth of the new 
world is alive to their country's honor equal to the 
youth of the ancient world. 

An example of that ancient patriotism may be 
shown in the oath of the young men of Athens. It 
is as follows : 

"We will never bring disgrace to this our city by 




Washington Tomb — Mount Vernon, Virginia. 



STANDARDS OF PATRIOTISM 171 

any act of dishonesty or cowardice, nor ever desert 
our suffering comrades in the ranks. We will fight 
for the ideals and sacred things of the city, both alone 
and with many; we will revere and obey the city's 
laws and do our best to incite a like respect and rev- 
erence in those about us who are prone to annul or 
set them at naught; we will strive unceasingly to 
quicken the public's sense of civic duty. Thus in all 
these ways we will transmit this city not only not 
less but greater, better and more beautiful than it 
was transmitted to us." 

The young men of revolutionary times were full 
of "the Spirit of '76." During the troublous days 
of near-war with France, in the administration of 
John Adams, the young men were eager to sustain 
their country's honor. As a good example, we may 
read with profit the address of the Harvard College 
students, which was published in The Boston Centi- 
nel, May 19, 1798: 

"Address to His Excellency John Adams, 
President of the United States 

"Sir: We flatter ourselves you will not be dis- 
pleased at hearing that the walls of your native semi- 
nary are now inhabited by youth possessing senti- 
ments congenial with your own. We do not pretend 
to great political sagacity ; we wish only to convince 



172 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

mankind that we inherit the intrepid spirit of our 
ancestors and disdain submission to the will of a 
rapacious, lawless and imperious nation. Though re- 
moved from active life, we have watched with anx- 
iety the interests of our country. We have seen a 
nation in Europe grasping at universal conquest, 
trampling on the laws of God and nations, systema- 
tizing rapine and plunder, destroying foreign gov- 
ernments by the strength of her arms or the pesti- 
lence of her embraces and scattering principles which 
subvert social order, raise the storms of domestic 
faction and perpetuate the horrors of revolution. We 
have seen this same nation violating our neutral 
rights, spurning our pacific proposals, her piratical 
citizens sweeping our ships from the seas and venal 
presses under her control pouring out torrents of 
abuse on men who have grown gray in our service. 
We have seen her ministers in this country insulting 
our government by a daring, unprecedented and con- 
temptuous appeal to the people, and her agents at 
home offering conditions which slaves whose necks 
have grown to the yoke would reject with indigna- 
tion. We have seen this, sir, and our youthful blood 
has boiled within us. When, in opposition to such 
conduct, we contemplate the measures of our own 
government, we cannot but admire and venerate the 
unsullied integrity, the decisive prudence and digni- 



STANDARDS OF PATRIOTISM 173 

fied firmness which have uniformly characterized 
your administration. Impressed with these senti- 
ments, we now solemnly offer the unwasted ardor and 
unimpaired energies of our youth to the service of 
our country. Our lives are our only property ; and 
we were not the sons of those who sealed our liberties 
with their blood if we would not defend with these 
lives that soil which now affords a peaceful grave to 
the mouldering bones of our forefathers." 

That address lets us into the feeling of patriotism 
that animated the people in the days of Washington 
and the making of America. We can easily imagine 
the makers of that address as being fired with fer- 
vor from the eloquence of Patrick Henry, the bold 
assertions of Thomas Paine, and the unanswerable 
logic of Thomas Jefferson. 

Only a few years before, in the dark hours of his 
country, Thomas Paine had put new life into the 
sorely pressed people by his patriotic pamphlets, 
from one of which we quote these words : 

" These are the times that try men's souls. The 
summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this 
crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but 
he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of 
man and woman. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily 
conquered ; yet we have this consolation with us, that 
the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. 



174 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

What we obtaui too cheap, we esteem too lightly : 'tis 
clearness only that gives everything its value. 

"Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its 
goods ; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial 
article as freedom should not be highly rated." 

Washington's labor was likewise lightened by the 
inspiring patriotism of many other noble makers of 
the new America. Thomas Jefferson, who became 
the third president, was of priceless service. His call 
to American patriotism may be well illustrated in a 
few of his most quoted statements : 

"The man who loves his country on its own ac- 
count, and not merely for its trappings of interest or 
power, can never be divorced from it, can never re- 
fuse to come forward when he finds that it is en- 
gaged in dangers which he has the means of warding 
off." 

"The first foundations of the social compact would 
be broken up were we definitely to refuse to its mem- 
bers the protection of their persons and property 
while in their lawful pursuits." 

"The persons and property of our citizens are en- 
titled to the protection of our government in all 
places where they may lawfully go." 

"We must make the interest of every nation stand 
surety for their justice, and their own loss to follow 
injury to us as effect follows its cause." 



STANDARDS OF PATRIOTISM 175 

' ' The times do certainly render it incumbent on all 
good citizens, attached to the rights and honor of 
their country, to bury in oblivion all internal differ- 
ences and rally round the standard of their country 
in opposition to the outrages of foreign nations.' ' 

"We are alarmed with the apprehensions of war, 
and sincerely anxious that it may be avoided ; but not 
at the expense either of our faith or our honor." 

"It is an eternal truth that acquiescence under 
insult is not the way to escape war." 

"When wrongs are pressed because it is believed 
they will be borne, resistance becomes morality." 



CHAPTER XVII 

CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS ON THE 

CHARACTER AND CAREER OF 

WASHINGTON 



I. THE WASHINGTON" IDEAL AS THE FIRST GREAT AMERI- 
CAN IDEAL 

Washington's religious belief has been the object 
of considerable controversy, because there is no 
standard or measure for a man's religious belief un- 
til the one investigating it gives his precise defini- 
tion of what he means by religion, and that probably 
can not be done, for any basis of general agreement. 
It is not so easy to map out the interest and mean- 
ing of human feeling. Somehow no great man has 
ever felt that what he accomplished was done by his 
unaided self. Everyone has in some form believed 
in a superior Guide. So a statement of Washing- 
ton in 1778 may be taken as the keynote of his re- 
ligious belief. He said, "The hand of Providence 

176 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS 111 

has been so conspicuous in all this that he must be 
worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than 
wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowl- 
edge his obligations.' ' 

His faith in the benevolence of order and law as 
divinely designed is shown in his statement in 1791 
that, "The great Ruler of events will not permit 
the happiness of so many millions to be destroyed." 
In 1792, he said, "As the All- Wise Disposer of events 
has hitherto watched over my steps, I trust that, in 
the important one I may be soon called upon to take, 
he will mark the course so plainly as that I cannot 
mistake the way." 

That this faith was necessary to his purpose and 
mind, to help him through the long series of trials, 
in both the war and presidency, no one can doubt, 
who reads the detailed history of those periods, — 
they were so often desperately discouraging, so often 
both helpless and hopeless to any human foresight 
or judgment. 

A few phrases taken from the "Mount Vernon 
Tribute" express the Americanism of Washington. 
The author of that inscription is unknown, but who- 
ever it was he knew. The tribute was transcribed 
from a manuscript copy on the back of a picture 
frame containing a portrait of Washington, found 
hanging in one of the rooms at Mount Vernon after 



178 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 



Washington's death. There he is called "The De- 
fender of His Country," "The Founder of Liberty," 
"The Friend of Man," and "Benefactor of Man- 
kind." "He triumphantly vindicated the Rights of 
Humanity," "Magnanimous in Youth, Glorious 
through Life, Great in Death"; "His Highest Ambi- 
tion the Happiness of Mankind. ' ' According to this 
definition of patriotism, the meaning is not limited to 
a political area of square miles or boundary lines. 

The noble tributes to Washington's character and 
work would fill many volumes, but a few will show 
how his life is regarded as a model for the youths of 
America. 

Senator Vance of North Carolina said, "The youth 
of America who aspire to promote their own and 
their country's welfare should never cease to gaze 
upon his great example, or to remember that the 
brightest gems in the crown of his immortality, the 
qualities which uphold his fame on earth and plead 
for him in heaven, were those which characterized 
him as the patient, brave Christian gentleman." 

James Bryce, the English statesman, publicist, and 
historian, said, "Washington stands alone and un- 
approachable, like a snow-peak rising above its fel- 
lows into the clear air of morning, with a dignity, 
constancy, and purity which have made him the ideal 
type of civic virtue to succeeding generations." 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS 179 

Henry Lee, who was beloved by Washington like 
a son, has given us the great picture of him, " First 
in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his coun- 
trymen, he was second to none in the humble and 
endearing scenes of private life; pious, just, hu- 
mane, temperate, and sincere, uniform, dignified, 
and commanding, his example was as edifying to all 
around him as were the effects of that example 
lasting.' ' 

Lord Byron wrote, 

" Where may the wearied eyes repose, 
When gazing on the great, 
Where neither guilty glory glows, 
Nor despicable state? 
Yes, — one, the first, the last, the best, 
The Cincinnatus of the West, 
Whom envy dared not hate, 
Bequeathed the name of Washington, 
To make men blush, there was but one." 

Louis Kossuth, the great Hungarian patriot, said, 
"Let him who looks for a monument to Washington 
look around the United States. Your freedom, your 
independence, your national power, your prosper- 
ity, and your prodigious growth are a monument to 
him." 



180 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

Lord Macaulay says that he had in his character, 
"The sobriety, the self-command, the perfect sound- 
ness of judgment, the perfect rectitude of intention, 
to which the history of revolutions furnishes no 
parallel, or furnishes a parallel in Washington 
alone.'' 

The tribute of the greatest American to the great- 
est American, for, so alike are these two in divinity 
of mind for the divinity of America and humanity 
that they can thus be thought of only as one, should 
be known to all. Abraham Lincoln says, "Washing- 
ton's is the mightiest name on earth — long since 
mightiest in the cause of civil liberty; still mightiest 
in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy is 
expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the 
sun, or glory to the name of Washington, is alike im- 
possible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pro- 
nounce the name, and in its naked deathless splendor 
leave it shining on." 






II. NOT BIRTH BUT CHARACTER MAKES AMERICANS 

Washington and Lincoln are two names msep- 
arately connected in the making and preservation of 
America. Each became the leader in his country's 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS 181 

interests at a period of almost unspeakable dissen- 
tion and of indescribable peril to freedom as the con- 
dition of social civilization. In the midst of that ter- 
rible turmoil, through every form of abuse, intrigue 
and obstruction, they kept clear the way that Amer- 
ica should go, and upheld the America that all free- 
born men believed to be the ideal and opportunity of 
humanity and mankind. 

Washington is often declared to have been so much 
of his life an Englishman that he cannot be regarded 
as a real born American. With this declaration it is 
also asserted that Lincoln was the first complete 
representative of real Americanism. This is as much 
as to say that one born into the richest family in the 
early days of a town is not as much of a citizen as 
one born in the poorest house in the town when it has 
become a city. Search can nowhere reveal any Amer- 
icanism in either of those great souls that was not 
also in the other. Physical surroundings had much 
to do with the details of their minds, characters and 
careers, but nothing to do with their principles of 
humanity which were indistinguishably the same. 
The glorious largeness of their hearts and their man- 
hood made the same supreme American. Though 
less in leadership and in effect upon the life of their 
country, there were thousands, if not millions, as 
perfectly synonymous with Americanism as either 



182 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

Washington or Lincoln. It is thus character and not 
birth that makes Americans, and therefore it is not 
place but humanity that makes America. 

The hereditary mansion and the log hut were but 
the outer form of those two great men. The faith, 
hope and love within for the freedom of humanity, 
in the truth that makes men free, were the same in 
both hut and mansion. 

Those numerous malcontents who villified Wash- 
ington, and whose subsequents poisoned the atmos- 
phere around Lincoln, could not see an hour beyond 
their own dog's day, and were unable to measure any 
value greater than their own personal interests. The 
very names which they strove to make great in the 
historical vision of posterity have vanished, or their 
perversions have been forgiven as repented fully. 
In contrast to them are such noble heroes illustrated, 
for instance by John Dickinson, who did not believe 
it was their duty to leave wealth to their children, 
but it was necessary to leave them a heritage of lib- 
erty; by Samuel Adams, who was impoverished by 
his stand for American freedom, and yet scornfully 
refused an honored office that was meant to bribe him 
away from the American cause; by Robert Morris, 
who gave his fortune to feed the starving troops in 
the darkest period of the war; and by Benjamin 
Franklin, rich, famous and old, past seventy years 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS 183 



of age, accepting the dangerous, laborious and sac- 
rificing mission to France, in the name of human 
union, for a liberty-loving world. It required the 
prof oundest devotion and heroism for one so old as 
Franklin to break with friends of a lifetime, as 
shown when he wrote, 

"You and I were long friends; you are now my 
enemy and I am yours, 

"B. Franklin. " 

Likewise, when he signed the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, saying, "We must now all hang together 
or hang separately. ' ' 

The foundations of Americanism rest on Ameri- 
cans and when they are needed they always come 
forth to keep the faith. 



III. THE AMERICAN LESSON LEARNED FROM THE GREAT- 
EST LEADERS IN THE MAKING OF AMERICA 

Washington was no prodigy, and it belittles both 
him and Lincoln to be rated as miracles. The study 
of their lives teaches us above all things that there 
was no accident about them. They built themselves 



184 TEE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

up out of the material of their experiences and cir- 
cumstances into manhood and character, ready for 
the tasks of their human world. 

No man of colonial times lived more under Eng- 
lish aristocratic influence than Washington, and yet 
it only served as a contrast in which to define his 
principles of liberty, his meaning of manhood and 
his vision of humanity. So, also, no man of his times 
was more under the belittling trivialities of frontier 
destitution and ignorance than Abraham Lincoln, 
but it only served as inspiration and revelation for 
his moral duty in the supreme crisis of the American 
nation. 

The lives of these two great men, from such widely 
different origins, and yet coming to oneness in such 
a mutual cause and character, are vital inspiration to 
every aspiring youth, showing that the value of char- 
acter is in every one's own hands if he will but look 
around and get the true measure of what are life, and 
mind, and humanity. Those careers show that the 
rights of man are never found in fragments, nor ex- 
clusive in parties or single nations. 

Larned says, in his " Study of Greatness in Men," 
that "A man more perfectly educated than Abra- 
ham Lincoln, in the true meaning of education, did 
not exist in the world. When the time came for his 
doing a great work, he had perfected his powers, and 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS 185 

the simple story of the simple methods of self-cul- 
ture and self-training, by which he was nature-led to 
that perfect result, holds the whole philosophy of 
education." 

Washington's life was a fine human model through 
all the periods of his career, but the heartening les- 
son of Lincoln was in his unconquerable struggle to 
master a way of life, in the course of which could 
appear his worthy human task. 

Lincoln's man-making process especially proves, 
even as Washington's life had already shown, that 
there must be a fundamental honesty of purpose in 
building up the mind or no one can ever arrive at 
manhood, character or more abundant life. 

Washington and Lincoln were continuously ex- 
pressing themselves in word or deed, but always 
striving for the reasonable in a clear-minded way. 
Their mind-making was always the process of 
achieving a humanity-mind capable of clear world- 
wisdom. In that kingdom alone is the Americanism 
that is human liberty, the rights of man and the 
moral redemption of the world. 

The cruel martyrdom of Lincoln's death no doubt 
threw a glamor of hero-worship over Lincoln, which 
does him more injustice than honor, for the simple 
reason that the merit of his life belongs to his own 
heroic soul, and its desperate struggle up to the light. 



186 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

Washington's real life and character have been much 
obscured by the romance of his times and the hero- 
worship which so much prevailed in the literature of 
his period. It is doubtless of more real value to 
American patriotism, personal character and moral 
humanity, for both the heroic and the trivial to fade 
from our interest in the lives of "Washington and 
Lincoln, and from the meaning of their lives for the 
rights of man. We need to appreciate the human 
struggle within themselves that made them admir- 
able men, and we need to know it in relation to the 
human work around them that made them admirable 
Americans. More and more we can see in their earn- 
est endeavor for the right-minded way, not only the 
making of men and the making of Americans, but 
also the making of America and the making of the 
World. 



END 



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